Check a licence

Your location matters

US health-department guidance was checked on September 26, 2026. It says a licence or other legal permission is needed by the person providing care. That permission must cover the state the patient is in during care.

Give the service your location for the visit, and include the state. Ask whether the person treating you is licensed or otherwise allowed to provide care there.

Check the person, then the pharmacy

Doctors receive their licences from an office called a state medical board.

You can check a doctor's licence in its records. Those records can also show action the board took because the doctor broke its rules.

The details it publishes vary by state.

Ask for the doctor's licence number and complete name. Look them up through the state medical board's search. Look for a current licence and any restrictions on the work the doctor is allowed to do.

If someone other than a doctor writes your prescription, ask for their job title and the state office that licenses them.

Pharmacy licence records are kept by a separate state office, called the board of pharmacy.

In most states, a pharmacy located elsewhere needs permission from the patient's state before it can ship medicine there, checked on September 26, 2026.

A doctor's record may list no public board action. That fact alone does not show how good their care is.