Skip to content
healthcare.dev
Get a free key

Terms of Service

The terms you agree to when you use healthcare.dev, its API, MCP server, SDKs, CLI and free tools.

Last updated

Thank you for using healthcare.dev. These Terms of Service ("Terms") cover the agreement between you and us. Please read them, especially the sections on patient information, medical advice and liability.

When we say "healthcare.dev", "we", "our" or "us", we mean the operator of healthcare.dev. When we say "Services", we mean the healthcare.dev website, the API at api.healthcare.dev, the MCP server, the dashboard at app.healthcare.dev, the documentation, the SDKs, the CLI and the free tools. When we say "you", we mean the person or organization that holds an account, or that uses the free tools or anonymous access without one. If you use the Services for an organization, you accept these Terms on its behalf.

We may update these Terms. The current version is always on this page, with the date at the top, and every change is tracked in our public repository. If a change materially reduces your rights, we will email account owners at least 30 days before it takes effect. Using the Services after a change takes effect means you accept it. If we don't enforce a provision, we haven't waived it.

No patient information (PHI)

healthcare.dev serves public reference data. It is not built to receive, store or process information about patients, and it must never receive any.

  1. Requests to the Services may only contain identifiers and descriptions of public things: code values (for example ICD-10-CM, ICD-10-PCS or HCPCS codes), drug identifiers (NDCs, RxCUIs), drug or code descriptions, National Provider Identifiers and the other public identifiers our documentation describes.
  2. You must not send protected health information as defined by HIPAA (45 C.F.R. § 160.103), or any other information that identifies, or could reasonably be used to identify, an individual patient or health plan member. That includes names, dates of birth, addresses, medical record or member numbers, claim numbers and free-text notes about a person, alone or combined with codes.
  3. We are not a business associate under HIPAA, and we do not sign business associate agreements. Do not use the Services in a way that would make us one.
  4. If you send us information that violates this section, you are responsible for it. When we discover it, we will delete it and may suspend the key that sent it.
  5. If you build an agent or application that calls the Services, you are responsible for making sure it follows this section, including when its input comes from your users.

Reference data, not medical advice

  1. The Services provide reference data compiled from public sources such as CMS, CDC NCHS, the FDA and the National Library of Medicine. They are not medical, clinical, diagnostic, coding, billing, legal or reimbursement advice.
  2. Nothing in the Services replaces the judgment of a qualified professional. Do not use the Services as the sole basis for decisions about a patient's care, a diagnosis, a prescription, a claim or a payment.
  3. Reference data can be incomplete, out of date or wrong, including because the upstream source is. Every response tells you its source and release (meta.source, meta.data_version); check it when it matters.
  4. A drug's listing in the FDA NDC Directory does not mean it is FDA approved.

Accounts and API keys

  1. You must give accurate sign-up information and keep it current.
  2. You are responsible for keeping your API keys secret and for all activity under your account and keys, including activity by agents and applications you connect. Revoke a key as soon as you suspect it has leaked.
  3. Software agents may use the Services, through your keys or through anonymous access where we offer it. You are responsible for the agents that act for you.
  4. You must be at least 18 years old, or the age of majority where you live, to create an account.
  5. You may not use the Services if you are barred from receiving them under US law, including US sanctions and export controls.

Acceptable use

You may not, and may not let anyone else:

  1. Use the Services for anything illegal, or to harm, deceive or discriminate against people.
  2. Send patient information (see above), malware or content you don't have the right to send.
  3. Probe, scan or test the vulnerability of the Services except under our security policy, or get around rate limits, quotas, authentication or other technical limits, including by creating multiple free accounts.
  4. Resell, sublicense or share raw API access or API keys with anyone outside your organization. Building products that use the responses is fine; see Data and licenses.
  5. Put a load on the Services that degrades them for others. We may throttle or suspend traffic that does, and we'll contact you first when we can.
  6. Misrepresent our data as your own work, or remove the source and license attribution that upstream licenses require.

Data and licenses

  1. Most data we serve comes from US government sources and is in the public domain. Some sources attach conditions. Each response's meta.license states the terms for that data, and our data licenses page lists every source. You agree to follow those terms, including required attribution (for example, the National Library of Medicine notice for RxNorm).
  2. Our compilation, normalization, schemas, versioning, documentation and software are ours. You may use API responses in your own products and services, store them, and display them to your users, subject to these Terms and the source terms.
  3. We don't provide CPT or CDT content, and you may not use the Services to obtain it.
  4. Data you send us (queries, configuration) stays yours. You give us a limited license to process it to provide, secure and improve the Services, as described in our Privacy Policy.

Payment, plans and changes

  1. Free plans are free: we don't ask for a card.
  2. Paid plans and usage-based fees are billed through Stripe in advance (subscriptions) or in arrears (usage), as shown on the pricing page and at checkout. You authorize us to charge your payment method for them.
  3. Fees exclude taxes. Where we are required to collect taxes, we add them to your invoice; otherwise you are responsible for them.
  4. If a payment fails, we may move your account to the Free plan or suspend paid features until it is paid.
  5. We may change prices. Changes to an existing subscription take effect at a renewal at least 30 days after we notify you by email.
  6. You can cancel a paid plan at any time from the dashboard; it stays active until the end of the period you have paid for. We don't prorate partial months, except where the law requires us to.

Cancellation and termination

  1. You can stop using the Services and delete your account at any time from the dashboard.
  2. We may suspend or end your access, with or without notice, if you violate these Terms, if your use creates a risk for us or for other users, or if we are required to by law. Where we reasonably can, we'll warn you first and give you a chance to fix the problem.
  3. When an account is deleted, we delete its data as our Privacy Policy describes. Sections that by their nature should survive (including patient information, medical advice, liability and indemnity) survive termination.

Changes to the Services

We change the Services over time. We follow the API versioning policy in our documentation: within a major API version we only make additive changes, and we announce deprecations at least six months ahead. We may otherwise modify, suspend or discontinue any part of the Services; if we discontinue a paid Service, we'll refund prepaid fees for the unused period.

Availability and support

  1. Unless you have a signed agreement with a service level, the Services are provided without an uptime commitment, though we work hard on uptime and publish our status at healthcare.dev/status.
  2. Support is by email at hello@healthcare.dev on a best-effort basis unless your plan says otherwise.

Disclaimer of warranties

THE SERVICES AND ALL DATA ARE PROVIDED "AS IS" AND "AS AVAILABLE". TO THE FULLEST EXTENT PERMITTED BY LAW, WE DISCLAIM ALL WARRANTIES, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE, ACCURACY, COMPLETENESS, TIMELINESS AND NON-INFRINGEMENT. WE DO NOT WARRANT THAT THE SERVICES WILL BE UNINTERRUPTED OR ERROR-FREE, OR THAT ANY DATA IS CURRENT OR CORRECT.

Liability

TO THE FULLEST EXTENT PERMITTED BY LAW, WE WILL NOT BE LIABLE FOR ANY INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL, CONSEQUENTIAL, EXEMPLARY OR PUNITIVE DAMAGES, OR FOR LOST PROFITS, REVENUE, DATA OR GOODWILL, ARISING OUT OF OR RELATED TO THE SERVICES OR THESE TERMS, INCLUDING ANY CLINICAL, CODING, BILLING OR PAYMENT DECISION MADE USING THE SERVICES, WHETHER IN CONTRACT, TORT (INCLUDING NEGLIGENCE) OR ANY OTHER THEORY, EVEN IF WE WERE TOLD THEY WERE POSSIBLE.

OUR TOTAL LIABILITY FOR ALL CLAIMS RELATED TO THE SERVICES IS LIMITED TO THE GREATER OF (A) THE AMOUNTS YOU PAID US FOR THE SERVICES IN THE 12 MONTHS BEFORE THE EVENT GIVING RISE TO THE CLAIM AND (B) US $100.

Some jurisdictions don't allow these limitations, so they may not all apply to you.

Indemnity

You will defend and indemnify us against third-party claims, and the resulting losses and costs (including reasonable legal fees), that arise from your use of the Services in violation of these Terms, including any patient information you or your agents or users send us, and from products you build with the Services.

General

  1. These Terms, together with the Privacy Policy and any order form or written agreement you sign with us, are the entire agreement about the Services. A signed agreement wins where it conflicts with these Terms.
  2. If a provision is unenforceable, the rest of the Terms still apply.
  3. You may not assign these Terms without our consent; we may assign them in connection with a merger, acquisition or sale of assets.
  4. Notices to you go to your account email. Notices to us go to hello@healthcare.dev.

Questions about these Terms: hello@healthcare.dev.

Structure adapted from the 37signals (Basecamp) open-source policies, licensed under CC BY 4.0.