In brief
A video appointment, a phone call or an exchange online can be a telehealth visit. For an in-person appointment, you share a room with your treating professional.
Compare how each kind of visit would handle your questions, any examination and later care.
Ask what happens during the assessment
In advice addressed to state boards, the Federation of State Medical Boards sets the same quality expectation for online care as for an in-person visit.
Its advice, reviewed on September 26, 2026, allows an assessment by a live call or messages read later only when the care meets that standard.
With a delayed exchange, your treating professional reads the information after you send it. Ask how either of you can come back with a question.
The boards’ advice rejects a prescription based only on a tick-box form with fixed answers. An online assessment must allow further questions so the doctor can gather the information needed for care.
A useful comparison question
Ask each service: “If this visit leaves something unclear, how will it be checked?” Write down the answer in the same place as the visit fee.
Find out how to get hands-on care
Under the boards’ guidance, necessary tests should be carried out, arranged or handled through a referral.
It also calls for an in-person referral when a physical examination or procedure is needed.
For an online option, ask where that next visit would take place and who would arrange it. For an office visit, ask what can be handled there.
Check the state as well as the format
As of September 26, 2026, state rules differed on how an online prescribing relationship could begin.
Give the location you plan to use for the appointment. If you expect to travel, ask how a change of location affects later appointments.