Practices do not differ much in what they want from a compounding pharmacy; they differ in what stops them. One is blocked by who signs the purchase order, another by how many states it has to be right in at once, another by whether it dispenses rather than administers, and one by a federal doctrine that moves without reference to any state. Each page below leads with the constraint that is not the others’.
How these pages are organised
By the constraint, not by the category.
A page that simply swapped one practice type’s name for another’s would be worth nothing to read and nothing to cite, so each of these exists only because it answers one question the others do not: what is the single regulatory or operational fact that blocks this kind of practice and not the rest. Where two practice types turned out to share a binding constraint, they share a page rather than getting one each.
The constraints that actually separate them are who signs the purchase order, how many states the model has to be true in at once, whether the practice dispenses as well as administers, and whether the menu is decided by a federal doctrine rather than by a state rule.
Practice types and the binding constraint each one hits. Reviewed 2026-08-29.
Scheduled stock triggers a registration tied to each physical location, and the copy rule bites hardest where an approved product already exists at the same strength and route.
Prescriptive authority is a separate grant from stock-holding, and dispensing can put a full pharmacy permit on the building rather than a lighter practitioner registration.
Buying under your own licence is the one purchasing arrangement several states exempt from a facility permit, and ordinary growth steps end that exemption without feeling like regulatory decisions.
Two things, which is why they are not repeated on each page at length.
Federal law sets the floor.21 U.S.C. § 353a exempts a compounded drug from three federal requirements only where it is “compounded for an identified individual patient based on the receipt of a valid prescription order,” so non-patient-specific stock from a state-licensed 503A pharmacy sits outside that exemption whatever a state rule says. Section 353b is the provision written for the other case, and it is why the outsourcing-facility route exists for office stock at all. Both are set out at 503A pharmacies and 503B outsourcing facilities compared.
Your state decides the rest, and the states are not alike. Rule text, citations and last-reviewed dates for every state we have read are in the state-by-state office-use guide, and the transaction itself is walked through at how to place an office-use order.
Practice types without their own page
Deliberately, and it is worth saying which.
Wellness clinics are the clearest case. Everything that binds a wellness clinic is already the binding constraint of another page: if the business entity buys, the constraint is the one described for med spas; if a nurse practitioner owns or staffs it, the constraint is the one described for nurse-practitioner-owned practices; if the menu is decided by the copy rule, it is the one described for weight-management clinics. A separate page would have restated all three with a different heading, which is a worse answer than being sent to the right one.
Men’s health practices, concierge practices and regenerative-medicine practices sit in the same position for now. If a constraint emerges that is genuinely theirs and not another page’s, it earns a page then.
Where to start
If you are not sure which constraint is yours, start with the two that decide the most: whether the purchase will be made by a business entity or by a practitioner under their own licence, and whether each item will be administered in the office or dispensed to the patient. Those two answers narrow almost every other question on this site.
If you would rather have them mapped against your state and your list directly, you can apply for an account.
What this page does not establish
These pages are organised by what blocks a practice, not by what a practice sells. If two descriptions fit you, read both — the constraints stack rather than substitute.
The states read in full from primary sources are Georgia, North Carolina, Ohio, Louisiana, New Jersey, Illinois, Texas, Florida, California, New York, Arizona and Colorado. The rest have not been researched.
Educational information, not legal advice. Verify with your own counsel and your state board before you order.
Sources
Primary sources, fetched directly from the issuing body. No secondary summaries.