Ask and note / Care checks
What would you want to know before saying yes?
Ask until the plan makes sense.
Use these questions as written, or put them in your own words. Leave a little space beside each one for the answer.
Who will assess me?
Doctors receive permission to practise from a state medical board, which keeps licence records open to anyone. Those records can show steps the board took over a broken rule, such as limits on the doctor’s work.
A record with no such entries is not proof of good care from that doctor.
Ask for the full name, the type of licence, and the state it covers. Match the board’s record to the person named for your visit.
Is the licence still current? Look for limits on the doctor’s work or steps the board took over a broken rule. What the board makes public differs by state.
Why this medicine?
- What is its exact name?
- What problem is it meant to treat?
- Does it come ready-made from a drug company, or is a pharmacy or doctor making it to order for me?
- What unwanted effects might it have?
- What else could address the same concern?
Who sends the medicine?
Before agreeing to a plan, ask what the pharmacy’s full name is.
The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) directs readers to pharmacy licence records kept by individual states.
Look there for the pharmacy named by the service. Ask which licences cover its location and deliveries to your state.
As of September 2026, most states require a licence or permit for a pharmacy based in another state before it sends prescription medicines to their residents.
Licence records confirm permission to practise; they do not show that every prescription is filled correctly.
What does a badge prove?
As of September 2026, seeing “FDA registered” does not tell you that the medicine or the place that makes it has FDA approval.
Registration alone also does not show that a product may be sold legally.
Ask what a seal or badge actually checks. Then look for the licence record and the medicine’s approval status separately.
What happens if I pause?
- How do I cancel?
- Will a membership keep charging?
- Who can help after the visit?
- Where can I get the plan in writing?
Brief source note
A board record answers the licence question. FDA approval answers a different question about a particular product.