Find someone to check your health problem.
Start with a licensed health professional, or clinician, who can check what is bothering you. Ask about care for your health problem, even if a substance led you to search.
Remote still means a visit
A screen can be a way to talk about care.
Telehealth is a health visit using video, phone or online messages when people are not in the same room.
For telehealth, the Federation of State Medical Boards requires the same standard of care as for an in-person visit.
That federation publishes guidance for state boards; its policy is not a national law.
Choose a setting
Ask what the doctor needs to check.
An in-person visit
Ask whether your concern calls for an examination in the room. Bring the claim you saw and ask about other ways to address the problem.
Licensed telehealth
Ask what the doctor can check by phone or video. Ask when you would need to go in person for an examination or test.
Under medical-board guidance, your clinician must arrange any test you need or refer you to someone who can carry it out.
A phone or video visit may therefore lead to an examination in person rather than a prescription.
Check permission where you sit
Your location matters.
As of September 2026, federal health guidance requires your clinician’s licence or other practice permission to cover the state you are physically in during the visit.
State rules vary, so the check is the permission that covers your location.
A state medical board keeps doctor licence records. Its public record can show punishments for breaking the board’s rules. It can also show formal charges: a case the board has brought that is still open.
- Get the clinician’s full name plus the details of their licence.
- Match the name to the state board’s record. Look for whether the licence is current or has been put on hold. Check for limits on the doctor’s work or an open case.
- If the professional has a different kind of licence, ask which state board keeps that record.
If a record lists limits on the doctor’s work or a licence put on hold, ask the board what it means for your visit.
A record with no public punishment is not a rating of how well someone practises.
Ask who would prepare and send it.
The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) says people using an online care website may not know which pharmacy or doctor actually made a medicine.
The pharmacy, doctor or facility making a medicine for a patient’s particular need is called the compounder.
Get the pharmacy’s name before checking its record. FDA provides links for looking up pharmacy licences in each state.
A pharmacy licence shows that the pharmacy is licensed. That licence does not establish whether a specific medicine suits you or can legally be supplied.
Read the US rules page for TB-500’s approval status and the limits on pharmacies making it. A prescription offer alone does not show that a pharmacy may legally make it.