Bencao House
Begin a reading$39

Policies

What we have written down

Documents
7
Last updated
8 September 2026
Read first
The practitioner disclosure
Fee, in all of them
US $39, charged once

Seven documents. Who we are and where we are licensed. What happens to your thirty answers and your photograph, and how to have them deleted. What you are buying and on what terms. When we give the money back. The one cookie. Where the site is not yet accessible enough. All of it written before you pay, not after.

Why these are not a footer

A stranger in another country is asking you for a photograph and thirty-nine dollars.

That sentence is the whole reason this section exists. You are being asked to send a picture of the inside of your mouth, and a page of honest answers about how you sleep and what you eat, to a family you have never met, in a city you may never have visited, in a country whose regulator you cannot write to. Every one of those facts is a good reason to be careful, and none of them is improved by a reassuring tone.

So the documents below are written to be read rather than to be scrolled past. They are in plain sentences. They say what is true, including the parts that are awkward — that our licences are Chinese and hold no standing where you live, that your answers are read on a screen in Hangzhou, that no Western regulator has evaluated the framework we use.

The first of the seven is the one to read. The practitioner disclosure is modelled on the written disclosure that California and Minnesota require of anyone practising a complementary tradition without a state licence: who we are, what we trained in, what we are offering, what we will not do, what it costs, and how to complain about us. Those statutes exist because disclosure before the fact is what separates an honest practice from a dishonest one. We would publish it anyway.

Policies

Seven documents, in the order they matter.

Each is dated 8 September 2026 and carries a version stamp. When a document changes materially, everyone who bought a report in the previous twelve months is emailed fourteen days beforehand.

  1. Hands writing case notes with a fountain pen, seen from above.Practitioner disclosureWho we are, and are notBencao House is a family practice of physicians licensed to practise Chinese medicine in the People’s Republic of China. We are not licensed in the United States or in any other country outside China. We sell one thing: a written, educational report, US $39, emailed within 48 hours. This page says so before you pay, which is the point of it.
  2. A printed report, folded in a paper band, resting on raw linen beside a plain envelope.Health data noticeAnswers, photograph, emailYour thirty answers, anything you write in your own words, one photograph of your tongue and your email address are held for a limited time so that a physician can read them and write your report. They are stored encrypted, read by two people, never sold, and deleted when you ask. No advertising or analytics code runs on those pages.
  3. A wall of traditional herb-cabinet drawers in aged elm with small brass pulls.Privacy policyEverything else we holdThis policy covers everything that is not health data: the pages you visit, the emails we send, the payment Stripe processes on our behalf, and the records we are obliged to keep. We do not run advertising or analytics code anywhere on this site. We do not sell or share personal information. You can ask for a copy or a deletion at any time.
  4. Macro detail of the deckled edge of printed pages with a small red seal impression.Terms of serviceWhat is sold, and on what termsYou are buying one written report for US $39, delivered by email within 48 hours. You agree to answer honestly and to use the report yourself. We agree to write it carefully and to refund you if we cannot. Buying a report does not create a relationship of clinical care, and our liability is limited to what you paid.
  5. A small brass balance scale and squares of wrapping paper on a wooden counter.Refund policyBefore, during and afterIf no physician has opened your intake yet, ask and we refund the full US $39, with no questions and no form. Once a report has been delivered we still refund it within thirty days if it arrived late, if it does not engage with what you told us, or if it crossed a line we said we would not cross.
  6. Daylight through a doorway into a quiet consultation room with a wooden stool.Cookie noticeOne cookie, namedThis site sets one cookie of its own. It keeps your place in the intake form so that a refresh does not lose your answers. There is no analytics cookie, no advertising cookie and no third-party tag manager, which is why you are not being asked to accept anything before you read.
  7. A shallow celadon dish of still water catching window light.Accessibility statementWCAG 2.2 AA, and the gapsWe build to WCAG 2.2 level AA. Every page has real landmarks and heading order, a visible focus ring, keyboard operation throughout, and motion that stops entirely when your system asks for reduced motion. Five things fall short today, and they are named below rather than left for you to find. Tell us about a barrier and we answer within two working days.

If something is unclear

Ask before you pay, not after.

A policy you had to ask about is a policy that was written badly. Write to hello@bencaohouse.com and one of us answers, by name, usually within a day. Questions about your information go to privacy@bencaohouse.com, and a complaint goes to care@bencaohouse.com, which is read by a person whose name is on the disclosure.

The shorter version of all seven documents is on what we will not do. It is one page, and nothing here contradicts it.

The reading

Read the disclosure first. Then decide.

Thirty questions and one photograph. A physician licensed in China writes to you in English within 48 hours, for US $39, and tells you plainly what the reading can and cannot see.

Begin a reading$39Read a sample report