What can I prepare for the visit?
Write down the goal, your health history, medicines you already take and the questions you want answered. Note what matters to you about time and cost.
Ask who will review this information and how you can reply if they need more detail.
Can a first visit be online?
As of September 2026, states had different rules for establishing care through an online assessment.
The Federation of State Medical Boards unites the state bodies responsible for licensing doctors. Its advice allows online visits, including visits where you reply at different times, if the doctor gathers enough health information and arranges any needed tests or examination.
You might fill in a form and have the doctor read it later, instead of speaking at the same time.
Is a fixed form enough?
The group’s advice says a fixed tick-box form alone is not enough for treatment. To decide on care, the doctor must be free to ask further questions and collect the health information the decision needs.
These recommendations are addressed to state boards. Each state sets its own legal rules for online visits.
Will I need tests or an exam?
Under the group’s advice, the doctor must carry out needed tests, arrange them for you, or refer you to someone who can perform them.
Its advice also calls for a visit in person if your health problem needs an examination or procedure that cannot be done online.
Ask what the doctor needs to check about your health and whether tests would cost extra.
Where to read more
- Medical boards: online care guidance
Explains how a doctor needs to check your health and arrange tests or later care. Each state sets the legal requirements.
- Medical boards: prescribing guidance
Choosing from a medicine list alone does not meet the guidance’s standard for care. A doctor needs to check your health, and you need a way to ask later questions.
Plain word notes
- Telehealth
Care that takes place by video, phone or an online form.
- Compounding
A medicine prepared to order for an individual patient.