A screen or a room
What will the visit actually involve?
Ask what happens between sharing your history and getting a decision. Keep room for your own questions.
The format changes; the care question stays
Ask about
What the answer needs to cover
A room visit
Ask what will be reviewed, what may need an exam and how the next decision will be explained.
A video visit
Ask how records are reviewed and what happens if the prescriber needs something a screen cannot provide.
A form read later
Find out who reads the form. How does that person put further questions to you, and how do you send your own questions?
Compare how each service will check your health before deciding on treatment. A short, easy form does not explain how that check happens.
What the guidance asks for
The Federation of State Medical Boards addresses its written guidance to the boards overseeing doctors.
Its advice says online care must meet the same requirements for good care as an in-person visit.
Its advice allows a doctor to read your online answers later if the doctor still has enough information to make a proper care decision.
It says a doctor cannot decide treatment from fixed tick-box answers alone. The doctor must be able to gather further health details or put additional questions to you.
Sending a follow-up question must be possible for patients; this point appears in guidance adopted in May 2026.
The board guidance offers suggested rules; it is not a law in force everywhere. Each state sets its own prescribing rules, which differed in September 2026.
When the health check calls for an exam or test
Tests may be needed to check your health. The board advice says the doctor must organise them or send you to a person who can.
Ask what each test would answer. Ask who orders it, who pays for it and who will discuss the result.
Keep the same questions for an in-person clinic. Being in a room does not explain the plan by itself.
Bring the discussion back to your health
- What in my history points toward this choice?
- What points away from it?
- What other options can we discuss?
- What is the plan if treatment is not offered?