Where to begin looking for care
Start with a licensed telehealth service or an in-person medical clinic. With telehealth, you receive care through video, phone calls, or messages online. The health professional reviewing your health is called a clinician.
Ask for the clinician’s name and the licence or permission that covers your visit. Use the medical board directory in the endnotes to find your state’s record.
U.S. rules and medicine status · As of September 2026
A state medical board is the state office that licenses doctors. Its public records show licences and any published action against a doctor for breaking rules.
The U.S. health department says the doctor’s permission to treat you depends on where you are during the visit.
To treat you in that state, a doctor must have a licence or another form of legal permission.
States have different rules for prescribing medicine online. A service’s national website does not by itself show what a doctor may prescribe in your state.
Tell the service where you will be for the visit, especially if you are travelling. For an in-person option, use the same licence check.
A form starts the conversation
The Federation of State Medical Boards brings state licensing offices together. It advises against using only a fixed set of form answers to prescribe medicine.
Its advice supports an online interview that adapts to your answers, with a clinician able to ask for more detail.
This is advice to state licensing offices, not the law itself. Each state sets the rules a doctor must follow for your visit.
Before the visit, jot down your goal, medicines and supplements, health history, allergies, and questions. Add pregnancy or breastfeeding plans if relevant. Ask what records to bring.
A prescriber is the clinician who can write the medicine order. Ask what the prescriber needs to know before making that decision.
Tests need a reason and a plan
If more information is needed, the guidance says the health professional needs to arrange tests. They can also refer you to someone who can arrange them.
It also recommends an in-person visit when you need an examination or other care that must happen in person.
A lab test checks a sample, such as blood. Ask what the result would change, where the test happens, who pays, and who explains the result.
A useful question is: can this visit answer the medical question, or is an in-person examination needed? Ask how a referral would work.
Leave with a next step
- What is the working plan, and why?
- What is still unknown?
- If medicine is proposed, what is its exact name?
- Who handles test results and later questions?
- What will this visit cost if no medicine is prescribed?
You can take time to read the plan and ask for plain words. A treatment menu is not a deadline.