Check a care route
How do I check the names?
Move from the name on a website to the record held by the relevant board. Check the person and the pharmacy separately.
Start with the person caring for you
A state medical board keeps public records of doctors' licences. It may also list disciplinary decisions: actions the board took because a doctor broke its rules.
The medical boards' group has a directory that leads to each state's board.
Match the person's full name, licence number, state and whether the licence is current. Read any disciplinary decisions shown in that record.
Some states have separate boards for different kinds of doctors. The absence of a public disciplinary decision does not establish the quality of the care.
For someone caring for you who is not a doctor, ask which board in the state records their licence. Look up the name there.
If medicine is offered, ask who makes it
FDA notes that a telehealth customer may not know who prepared a medicine.
Ask for the pharmacy's full name and the exact form of the product. The prescriber's name is not the pharmacy's name.
Pharmacy licences sit with state boards of pharmacy; FDA's lookup page leads to those state records.
If an online pharmacy is absent from the relevant state's licence records, FDA advises avoiding it.
A code does not settle approval
NDC means National Drug Code. This number identifies a drug in FDA's records.
Under FDA rules checked on September 26, 2026, having an NDC number does not establish that FDA approved a product.
A compounding pharmacy may display PCAB accreditation: a check by an outside group of how it makes medicines. The check uses national quality rules. It does not test each batch or replace a state licence.