[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/)

Keep the claim beside its limits

# What does the evidence actually answer?

Before accepting a claim, name the question it answers. Approval, a license and a treatment result are different questions to bring to the visit.

## Questions to work through

For approval, ask about the product.

The agency name behind FDA is Food and Drug Administration.

In a drug directory, the product’s identifying number is called a National Drug Code (NDC). Appearing in that directory does not establish approval for the medicine, FDA says in its position recorded September 26, 2026.

Ask for an approval record when the offer claims approval.

For care rules, distinguish guidance from a state rule.

To help state boards write remote-care rules, the Federation of State Medical Boards offers advice. That advice is not itself the law of every state; each state sets its own rules.

Ask which requirement governs your visit.

For a reported problem, keep the uncertainty.

FDA cautions that a reported health problem is no proof the medicine caused that problem. The reports cannot tell readers the rate at which a problem occurs either.

## For a promised benefit, ask a more focused question

Ask who was studied, which product they received and what changed. Ask whether the result answers your own recovery question. Keep a finding about a different problem in its own place.

If the source does not provide a useful answer, mark the question as open. A confident explanation cannot fill in a missing result.

## For an agency letter, ask what happened afterward

You can search FDA’s warning letters by company name. A warning letter says what FDA believes a business may have done wrong. Later replies or other contact between FDA and the business may change whether those concerns still apply.

Read what happened after the letter before deciding what it means today. If there is no letter about a business, it is possible that FDA has never reviewed it.

Keep this thought

Ask what a source establishes, then keep the part it cannot establish beside it. Bring that remaining question to the clinician.

## Notes for this question

### [FDA: directory limits](https://www.fda.gov/drugs/drug-approvals-and-databases/national-drug-code-directory)

A listing answers a narrower question than approval.

### [Medical boards: advice for remote care](https://www.fsmb.org/siteassets/advocacy/policies/fsmb-workgroup-on-telemedicineapril-2022-final.pdf)

Read this as board guidance, with the state rule checked separately.

### [FDA: limits of reported-event data](https://www.fda.gov/drugs/fda-adverse-event-monitoring-system-aems/fda-adverse-event-monitoring-system-aems-public-dashboard)

The agency explains why reports alone cannot establish cause or frequency.

### [FDA: search published letters](https://www.fda.gov/inspections-compliance-enforcement-and-criminal-investigations/compliance-actions-and-activities/warning-letters)

Read any later reply and any FDA closeout letter, meaning a letter saying the business has addressed the concerns FDA raised. Read these together with the original warning.

[Is it approved?](/approval/)  [What can I ask?](/questions/)  [Where do I begin?](/start/)

Words, unpacked

Cause

Whether something actually brought about a result.

Guidance

Advice to help boards make their rules; it is not itself a state law.

[Is it approved?](/approval/) [What is compounding?](/compounding/) [What does research-only mean?](/research/) [How can I read the evidence?](/sources/)

[Read this page as text](/sources/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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