How do I find a legitimate care path?

Check the prescriber

The prescriber needs a licence or other legal authority in the state where the patient is located during the visit. A state medical or professional board is the place to check the public record.

Telehealth does not lower the care standard. If the assessment needs an exam or a test, the prescriber can arrange it or send you to someone who can.

Check the pharmacy

Look up the dispensing pharmacy with the board of pharmacy in the patient’s state. Many states also expect a pharmacy based elsewhere to hold authority in the state it ships into.

Some pharmacy-made medicine comes from an outsourcing facility. That is a larger business that makes sterile, germ-free medicines in batches, often for clinics and hospitals. The FDA inspects these places. If your label names one, you can look it up on the FDA’s list of registered outsourcing facilities. Being on that list still does not mean the FDA approved the medicine.

Look at the visit itself

What does not prove legitimacy?

Check the record itself. For a doctor, find your state medical board through the national directory of state boards, then search the doctor’s full name.

For a pharmacy, use the FDA page that leads to your state’s pharmacy licence search; the FDA says that if the pharmacy is not listed, do not use it. Both links are on the sources page.