Will it be live?
In some online visits, a doctor reads your written answers later instead of meeting you live. Medical-board advice allows this only if the doctor can still assess your health and choose care as fully as the problem requires.
State rules differ, so that is not a blanket permission to prescribe from a form.
- Ask whether the visit is by video, phone or a written exchange.
- Ask how the clinician can come back with further questions.
- Ask how you can raise something the form did not cover.
- Ask what happens if the format does not suit the problem.
What makes it an assessment?
A fixed questionnaire is inadequate when it cannot gather the details proper care requires, says the Federation of State Medical Boards, an organisation of state medical boards.
This is advice for states to use when making their own rules. The rules for doctors are set by the state in which they practise.
- Can the clinician clarify an answer or ask about a missing detail?
- Can you discuss another option instead of selecting from a treatment menu?
- Can you ask questions before deciding?
What if a screen cannot meet the need?
Medical-board guidance says needed tests must be done, arranged or referred, with an in-person follow-up if an examination is required.
- Ask who arranges the next part of the assessment.
- Ask where the results go and who explains them.
- Tell the clinician which state you will be in at appointment time, including any planned travel.
- Ask who you can reach once the first visit has ended.