Keep in mind
Check the person’s permission to treat you
Under US health guidance checked in September 2026, the doctor needs your state’s permission to practise, through a licence or another route its rules allow. Use your physical location at the time of care to identify that state.
Each state’s rules decide which licences and exceptions allow care.
If a service says an exception covers your visit, ask your state medical board to confirm it. A claim to serve the whole country does not settle this check.
Beyond the name you found
Find the doctor in the board’s record
The Federation of State Medical Boards keeps links in a directory so you can reach state doctor-licensing boards.
That federation is a group of medical boards. Use its directory to reach your state’s own licence search.
Enter the full name. Compare the licence number with the one you were given.
Check the licence’s current status, then look for board action concerning this doctor.
If names or records do not match, ask the board or service to explain the gap.
Some states have separate boards for MD and DO doctors, so a search of one board may miss the other.
MD and DO are different medical degrees, and both groups are doctors.
Keep in mind
Ask about permission to treat you in your state
Which licence or state permission lets this health professional treat me where I will be sitting?
Use the answer for the lookup. If you will be travelling, name the state where the visit would happen.
Beyond the name you found
Know what a clean record tells you
A board record without problems still cannot predict the quality of your care.
State rules give nurse practitioners and physician assistants different prescribing roles, as of September 2026.
A nurse practitioner is a nurse with added training; a physician assistant is another trained health professional. Find out which board in the state licenses that individual.
Keep the care questions on your list even after the name checks out.
Endnotes
Notes for this chapter
- State medical-board directory
Use this to reach the state board’s own search.
- Medical boards: what public records contain
Keep asking about the care plan after the licence checks out.
- US health guidance: licences and location
Check permission in the state you will occupy when care takes place.
- Arizona: nurse practitioner care and prescriptions
A state example, rather than a nationwide rule.
- Texas: when a physician assistant must work with a doctor
Another example of why the role and state matter.