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Recovery care notebook / Care routes

# Choose how to seek an assessment.

Compare the way care will work in your day. Ask each service how it would assess the same problem and what happens after the visit.

An existing clinician can be a place to open the conversation.

Compare possible entry points, then ask how each would handle your concern.

| Route | Talk through this | Ask before arranging a visit
| A new in-person visit | How your concern will be assessed in the room. | Can this visit assess my problem, and what records can I bring?
| A new telehealth visit | How the clinician gathers information from a distance. | What happens if an examination or local test is needed?
| Your usual clinician | How this concern fits with care you already receive. | Can we discuss this together, or is another assessment needed?

## Check the person behind the appointment

The clinician treating you by screen, phone or messages needs legal permission for your location during the visit. This advice from HHS, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, was checked September 26, 2026.

At a remote visit, give the service your actual location. Ask how to verify the clinician’s permission to treat people there.

A doctor’s licensing board holds the public record of licence status and any published disciplinary history.

For doctors, that board is the state licensing authority. The details it publishes vary between states. Match the name to the person who will assess you. Ask which board to check if the professional has a different type of licence.

[Find the state medical board directory](https://www.fsmb.org/contact-a-state-medical-board/)

## Ask about a change of setting

The group of state medical boards advises doctors to arrange tests needed for a remote assessment, or find another health professional to arrange them.

That is the group’s advice to boards, rather than a law for every state. Ask where any local part of your care would happen and who receives the result.

### Ask about the handover

Who explains the results? Who sends the visit notes? Can your usual clinician receive a copy? What does a follow-up visit cost?

Put each answer beside the route you are considering.

Sources and when we checked them

Permission to treat you where you are: September 26, 2026. Checking a doctor’s licence and arranging tests: September 17, 2026.

- [HHS on permission to practise](https://telehealth.hhs.gov/licensure/getting-started-licensure)
- [What medical boards tell consumers](https://www.fsmb.org/u.s.-medical-regulatory-trends-and-actions/guide-to-medical-regulation-in-the-united-states/information-for-consumers/)
- [Remote-care standards and referrals](https://www.fsmb.org/siteassets/advocacy/policies/fsmb-workgroup-on-telemedicineapril-2022-final.pdf)

[Earlier chapter The name](/chapter-one/) [Continue reading Visit formats](/visit-chapter/)

This notebook is a guide for weighing care choices; it offers neither clinical visits nor products.

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