Source cards · Further reading
A place to check what you’ve read.
You want to check a claim yourself. Use these source pages for medicine rules, licence records and costs; read the date as well as the claim.
Product basics
Approval and made-to-order medicine
FDA stands for the US Food and Drug Administration. Read its explanations of medicine made to order and what an approval claim means.
A medicine made to order is called compounded; it does not gain FDA approval through that process, as of September 2026.
Check names against records
Doctor and pharmacy lookups
Doctors’ licence records and penalties imposed by their state medical boards are published by those boards.
Use the medical-board directory to find the state office that keeps doctors’ records, and the FDA pharmacy lookup page to find pharmacy licence records.
Choose the state where you would receive care or the shipment, then match the full name to the record.
Read about the visit
Questions and online assessment
State offices that license doctors make up the Federation of State Medical Boards.
As of September 2026, the group recommends that the person prescribing checks your health and gives you a way to ask follow-up questions.
This is advice for state medical boards; it is not a law that applies across the whole country.
Read the dated updates
Copies and delivery concerns
Use these FDA pages to check medicines in short supply nationwide, the limits on making similar medicines to order, and concerns about weight-loss products.
Keep the terms beside the price
Cash offers and Medicare
For prices paid without insurance, read the medicine company’s full offer terms. Ask your insurance plan to confirm what it covers and your share of the cost for your prescription.
GLP-1 is a name you may see for some medicines used for weight loss or type 2 diabetes.
It includes semaglutide under the names Ozempic and Wegovy, plus tirzepatide under the names Mounjaro and Zepbound.
Under the temporary Medicare GLP-1 Bridge program, qualifying people can get certain weight-loss medicines for $50 each month, as of September 2026.
It is for some adults with Medicare Part D, the prescription medicine coverage, who meet rules about their weight, health and type of insurance plan.
Having Medicare alone does not mean you qualify; a prescription and the program’s approval are required.
Ask your prescriber—the person writing the prescription—to check whether you qualify and request the program’s approval.
Keep a route for questions
Pharmacy checks and product problems
Patients can use MedWatch to report medicine problems to the FDA.
A report does not, on its own, show that the problem was caused by the medicine.