A guide to choosing care
Choose how the visit happens
The situation
A call sounds easier until you try to fit it into your day. Written questions sound easier until an answer needs more explanation. Compare the exchange and the follow-up before settling on a format.
Compare the conversation
Your clinician is the health professional responsible for checking your health and treating you.
| Format | What it feels like | Ask about |
|---|---|---|
| Live video | A conversation while both people are present. | How are questions handled after the call? |
| Written answers and messages | You write, then a clinician reviews and replies. | Can the clinician ask more, and can you reply? |
| In person | A conversation in the same room. | How will ongoing care fit into your schedule? |
The Federation of State Medical Boards recognises two first-visit options in its advice checked as of September 2026: live conversation and written exchange.
Either way, the clinician must have enough information to give proper medical care. State rules can differ.
This advice suggests rules for states to consider. It does not give a clinician permission to treat you in every state.
Check how your answers are reviewed
A short set of questions may look useful. The key question is what happens to the answers.
As of September 2026, the boards’ advice rejects treatment based only on a fixed list of online questions.
An online set of questions may change its next question based on your answer. It can help a clinician check whether care fits your health needs. The clinician must be able to follow up with more questions or seek more details about your health history.
Ask who reviews the answers, how to respond to another question, and how to discuss an answer that does not fit a box.
The boards’ advice accepts a telephone call if you cannot or do not want to use live video. It also accepts a call for care that can properly be given by telephone.
Ask whether a call can cover your medical needs, or whether video or an examination is needed.
That advice was checked as of September 2026; the state’s rules still apply.
Check permission to practise where you are
As of September 2026, federal rules do not require a first in-person visit to prescribe semaglutide, tirzepatide or liraglutide.
State rules still apply. The visit must give you proper medical care.
Your location during the visit determines which state permission the clinician generally needs: a licence or another valid form, as of September 2026.
Some states allow an out-of-state clinician to register for online care, so a full local licence is not the only possible route.
Ask for the clinician’s name and the state permission they rely on. Start with the medical board for that state.
Find the state-board starting pointsBring the questions that need a conversation
The medicine labels call for reviewing health history, other medicines and pregnancy plans before choosing treatment.
- Which part of my history changes the options?
- Would any examination or test help answer that question?
- Who can I reach between visits?
- How will we decide whether this route still fits?