[Go to the reading](#read)

[Recovery, in plain words](/)

A handbook for choosing care Plain words: on

[What is it?](/start/)

[Is it real?](/approval/)

[How do I find care?](/care/)

[What will I pay?](/cost/)

[What needs checking?](/safety/)

Choose the route, then check the people

# Where can the conversation happen?

You can explore an in-person assessment or ask about telehealth, meaning care at a distance. Start with how the clinician would understand your problem.

## Questions to work through

For a visit in person, ask what it includes.

Ask who will assess you, what time there is for questions and whether the visit can consider approaches beyond the advertised treatment.

For telehealth, say where you will be.

Your location during a remote visit sets the state whose license or other legal permission the clinician needs before treating you. Each state decides its rules; this health-department advice was checked on September 26, 2026.

Ask which license or other state permission covers the clinician’s care for you.

Ask how an examination would be arranged.

Medical-board advice, checked September 17, 2026, says the clinician must arrange care in person when you need an examination or test.

## A menu is not the whole assessment

The group representing state medical boards adopted advice in May 2026: an online medicine menu, by itself, is no basis for a prescription.

It also said patients must be able to ask the clinician questions.

This is advice to help state boards write rules. Each state sets the rules the clinician must follow.

## Compare the conversation you can have

Ask how questions are handled before and after the visit. Ask what happens if the clinician recommends a different approach, or no medicine at all.

Keep this thought

Choose a route that can address the problem, then check the clinician and pharmacy separately.

## Notes for this question

### [HHS: permission to practice](https://telehealth.hhs.gov/licensure/getting-started-licensure)

HHS is the US Department of Health and Human Services. Its page explains when a clinician needs a state license or other permission for a remote visit.

### [Medical boards: an adequate assessment](https://www.fsmb.org/siteassets/advocacy/policies/fsmb-workgroup-on-telemedicineapril-2022-final.pdf)

Advice for state medical boards on arranging an examination, tests or a visit with another clinician when needed. Each state sets its own rules.

### [Medical boards: treatment menus](https://www.fsmb.org/siteassets/advocacy/policies/guidance-on-recent-trends-in-prescribing-and-dispensing-adopted.pdf)

The guidance discusses direct online prescribing and the ability to ask questions.

[How do I check the clinician?](/licence/)  [What happens at a visit?](/visit/)  [How do I check the pharmacy?](/pharmacy/)

Words, unpacked

Telehealth

Care without sharing the same room.

Referral

Being directed to another clinician or service.

[Where can I seek care?](/care/) [How do I check the clinician?](/licence/) [How do I check the pharmacy?](/pharmacy/) [What happens at a visit?](/visit/) [What can I ask?](/questions/)

[Read this page as text](/care/index.md)

This is a guide for questioning care offers, never a clinic or a place that supplies medicine.

[Begin here](/)  [What can I ask?](/questions/)  [How can I read the evidence?](/sources/)

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