Quick answer
As of September 2026, every licensed physician in the United States appears in a public record that anyone can check for free in about 5 minutes. You need only the doctor's name and the state where you receive care: that state's medical board lookup (or, for a D.O., the state's osteopathic board where one exists) shows whether the license is current (active), when it expires, and whether the board has ever taken public disciplinary action.
How to verify a doctor's license in five steps:
- Write down the clinician's full name and the state you are physically in for the visit.
- Search that state's medical board, or its osteopathic board for a D.O.
- Read the license status and any public actions on the record.
- Search DocInfo to see every other state where the doctor holds or has held a license.
- Optionally, confirm specialty certification separately, and use the NPI registry only to confirm identity.
Why check a doctor's license at all?
The check matters most where care feels least familiar: a new provider, an online visit, a clinic you found through an ad. Licensing is the floor of legitimacy in American medicine, and it is a credential that is public, free to check, and maintained by a government body rather than the provider themselves.
A degree on the wall is not the same thing. Licenses come from state boards: the Federation of State Medical Boards (FSMB) counted 70 state and territorial medical and osteopathic boards in 2015, and together they license all U.S. physicians.
Step 1: The state medical board
Each state licenses its own physicians and runs a public lookup on the board's own website. Search for your state's name plus "medical board license lookup", or start from the board list maintained by the Federation of State Medical Boards. A typical record shows:
- full name and license number,
- license status (in California, for example: current, delinquent, suspended, surrendered, revoked),
- issue and expiration dates,
- education details such as medical school and graduation year, as California's sample profile shows,
- formal disciplinary actions, if any.
If the name search returns nothing, check the spelling and try the physician's legal name; if it still returns nothing for the state where they claim to practice, that is a serious red flag.
How to find the right board
- M.D. and D.O. boards can be separate. The Medical Board of California lookup tells users to contact the Osteopathic Medical Board of California if the physician is a D.O. FSMB's list of boards shows separate osteopathic boards in Arizona, California, Florida, Michigan, Nevada, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania and Tennessee, among others.
- Some states license through a department. Florida's Department of Health runs one license verification portal for every health profession, with the Board of Medicine and the Board of Osteopathic Medicine as separate choices. In Illinois, FSMB's list names the Department of Financial and Professional Regulation.
- A free lookup is not a paid verification. The public search on a board's website is free. Official verifications sent between boards when a doctor applies elsewhere are a separate service; FSMB's list, last revised in May 2023, shows many boards charging a fee for them. That is licensing paperwork, not something a patient needs.
What do license status words mean?
Each board defines its own status words, so read the key on your board's site. The Medical Board of California publishes an unusually complete physician profile guide, a useful model of what the common terms mean there:
| Status (California wording) | What the board says it means |
|---|---|
| Current | Licensed and can practice unless a secondary status says otherwise |
| Delinquent | Renewal fee unpaid, so the physician cannot practice |
| Renewal pending | Fee paid but other renewal requirements unmet; can practice unless the expiration date has passed |
| Probation | Can practice unless otherwise specified, under set terms and a board probation monitor for a fixed period |
| Restricted or suspended | Practice is limited, or not allowed, while the order is in place |
| Surrendered | License given up to resolve a disciplinary action; cannot practice |
| Revoked | License revoked through disciplinary action; cannot practice |
| Canceled | Canceled at the physician's request, or expired for at least five years without renewal; cannot practice |
| Retired | The physician retired the license; cannot practice |
| Public reprimand | Reprimand for a minor violation, which the board counts as discipline |
| Accusation filed | A formal charge; no hearing or finding yet, and practice is permitted unless otherwise specified |
California shows a primary and a secondary status, so read both. Other states use their own vocabulary.
What a license lookup will not show you
A clean record means no public action on file, not that nobody has ever complained. California's public disclosure page lists what is confidential under state law and would not appear on a profile: complaints made to the board, investigations it conducts, misdemeanor convictions after January 1, 2007 that did not lead to an accusation or discipline, and some malpractice information, such as pending or dismissed cases, which may be found in the county courthouse civil index.
At the federal level, the National Practitioner Data Bank holds reports on malpractice payments and certain adverse actions, but HRSA states those reports are confidential and not available to the public. Practitioners can view their own; patients cannot search it.
Timing matters too: DocInfo compiles what boards report, so check the board's own record for the most current status.
Step 2: DocInfo, the cross-state view
Physicians are often licensed in several states, which matters for telehealth. DocInfo.org, a free service of the Federation of State Medical Boards, draws on licensing and disciplinary data from state boards nationwide. One search shows every state where a physician holds or has held a license and any board actions on record, plus medical school, location and specialty certification data from the American Board of Medical Specialties and the American Osteopathic Association. It is the fastest check when you do not know which state to start with.
DocInfo also covers physician assistants. If a search limited to one state finds nothing, try again without a state, because the doctor may be licensed elsewhere. When a board has acted, FSMB's 2015 announcement of the tool says the report links to that board's website for details: DocInfo is the map, the state board record is the final word.
Step 3: The NPI registry, and what it is not
Under federal rules, health care providers that conduct standard electronic transactions, such as insurance billing, must obtain an NPI, a 10-digit National Provider Identifier. The public NPI registry run by CMS is a free directory of active NPI records and is useful for confirming identity: name, specialty, and practice details.
One caution: an NPI is an identifier, not a credential. The federal regulation describes the NPI as carrying "no intelligence about the health care provider", and the registry itself warns that issuing an NPI does not ensure or validate that a provider is licensed or credentialed. Sites that present an NPI as proof of legitimacy are overselling it.
An individual's NPI record can list a state and license number beside each specialty, entered by the provider. Treat it as a lead and confirm the status at the state board. License status lives with the state board, full stop.
Is board certification the same as a license?
No. A license is the state's legal permission to practice medicine. Board certification is a separate specialty credential. The American Board of Medical Specialties (ABMS) describes its certification as an independent evaluation of a physician's knowledge and skills in a specialty, and lists 38 specialties and 90 subspecialties certified by 24 ABMS Member Boards.
For patients, the ABMS site links to Certification Matters under the heading "Is Your Doctor Certified?". Neither credential stands in for the other; check each at its own source.
Can you look up a doctor by DEA number?
Not as a member of the public. The DEA Diversion Control Division lists its "Verification of DEA Registration" tool and registrant datasets as DEA Registrant restricted access, checked at login.
A DEA registration also answers a different question. Federal regulation requires anyone who dispenses a controlled substance to obtain one, so it concerns controlled substances only. It is not a medical license, and a DEA number offered as proof of licensure is the wrong document.
How to read a disciplinary record
Finding a board action on a record is not automatically disqualifying, and reading it well comes down to four questions:
- What was it for? A paperwork violation, a continuing-education lapse, and a patient-harm finding are very different things.
- When was it? A citation from 1998 with a clean record since tells a different story than an action last year.
- What was the outcome? A reprimand, a fine, a practice restriction, and a revocation sit on very different points of the severity scale.
- Is it only a charge? In California, an accusation means the physician has not yet had a hearing or been found guilty of any charge.
If anything in a record concerns you, ask the provider directly. California also offers a License Alert mobile app that notifies users when a doctor is suspended, revoked or placed on probation; elsewhere, simply repeat the lookup now and then.
How do you check a telehealth clinician's license?
In US telehealth, the practice of medicine is generally treated as taking place where the patient is located during the visit. The Interstate Medical Licensure Compact, for example, states that "the location of medical practice is the state where the patient is located." That means the license you check is the one for YOUR state, not the state where the platform is headquartered. Which state that is can change when you travel or move, and our guide to telehealth licensure across state lines explains how the rule is applied.
- Compact licenses are still state licenses. Under the Interstate Medical Licensure Compact, physicians receive separate licenses from each state in which they intend to practice, so a Compact doctor should appear in each state's lookup. The Commission states that imlcc.com is its only official website.
- Some states use registration. Florida requires out-of-state practitioners to register with its Department of Health to provide telehealth to patients in Florida, under section 456.47 of the Florida Statutes, and its portal lists them under Out-of-State Telehealth Providers.
Two things a legitimate telehealth service should always be able to tell you: the name of the physician who reviewed your case, and the state license under which they did so. With those two facts, the verification above works exactly as it does for an in-person doctor. For the pharmacy side of the same check, see our guides to what LegitScript certification verifies and how 503A and 503B pharmacies are regulated.
How to look up a nurse practitioner or physician assistant
- Nurse practitioners are licensed as nurses, typically as advanced practice registered nurses (APRNs), so search the state's nursing board or health licensing portal. Florida's portal includes a Board of Nursing and APRN entries, and points to Nursys for Nurse Licensure Compact multi-state RN or LPN licenses.
- Physician assistants appear in state lookups such as Florida's, and DocInfo searches PAs too. For national certification, the NCCPA verification page validates PA certification and reportable NCCPA disciplinary actions since 2012.
How to check whether a medical certificate or doctor's note is genuine
A license lookup confirms the named clinician is real and licensed, not that they wrote the document. Use three checks:
- Look up the named clinician on the board for the state shown and confirm a current status and a matching name.
- Contact the issuing practice through details you find yourself, such as its own website or the address on the board record, not the phone number printed on the document.
- Treat paper as the weakest evidence. NCCPA, for example, discourages relying on certificates and wallet cards because they may be altered. The live primary source outranks the printout.
Red flags that should stop you
- No record in the state where you are located, after checking spelling and the osteopathic board.
- A status other than current or active, or probation or restrictions whose documents you have not read.
- A platform that will not name the clinician or the state license they practice under.
- An NPI, a DEA number or a certificate offered as proof of licensure.
- A "lookup" site that charges for, or wants your personal details in exchange for, information boards publish free.
Questions worth asking any provider
- Which state license will my prescribing physician be practicing under for my visit?
- Where can I see the name of the physician who reviewed my case?
- Is your specialty certification current, and with which certifying board?
- Who do I contact if I want my records or have a concern about my care?
The bottom line
License verification is a consumer protection that is free, public, and takes minutes: state medical board first, DocInfo for the cross-state view, the NPI registry for identity but never as proof of licensure. Do the check whenever a provider is new to you, and treat any provider you cannot verify, or any platform that will not name your physician, as a provider you do not use.
The same logic applies to any health product sold without a clinician in the process: if there is no physician to name, there is no license to check. For one product category where that question comes up, see our guide to GLP-1 patches, and what is actually inside them.
This article is for informational purposes only and does not constitute medical advice. Medication is prescribed only if a licensed physician determines it is appropriate. For questions about your own care, talk with a licensed clinician.
Frequently Asked Questions
How do I find a doctor's license number?
Search the public lookup of the medical board, or the osteopathic board for a D.O., in the state where the doctor practices; the license number, status and expiration date are part of the record. If you do not know the state, DocInfo.org from the Federation of State Medical Boards lists the states where a physician holds or has held a license. An NPI record may also show a license number the provider entered, but confirm it at the board.
What is an NPI number, and does it prove a doctor is licensed?
An NPI (National Provider Identifier) is a 10-digit federal identifier used in standard health care transactions such as billing. The CMS NPI registry confirms that a provider record exists and shows specialty and practice location, but the registry itself cautions that an NPI does not validate licensure or credentials. For license status and discipline, use the state board.
Is it free to verify a doctor's license?
Yes. State board lookups, DocInfo.org and the NPI registry cost nothing to search. Fees apply to official verifications that one board sends to another when a doctor applies for a new license, which patients do not need. Be cautious with third-party sites that charge for public information or ask for your personal details.
How does license verification work with telehealth?
In US telehealth, the clinician generally must be licensed in the state where the patient is located at the time of the visit, so check the board in your state, not the platform's home state. A physician licensed through the Interstate Medical Licensure Compact still holds a separate license in each state, and Florida registers out-of-state telehealth practitioners. A legitimate service tells you the clinician's name and state license so you can check it.
What does probation mean on a doctor's license?
It depends on the state. In California, probation follows a disciplinary action and lasts a set period during which the physician must meet specified terms and report to a board probation monitor. The physician can keep practicing unless the order says otherwise. The board's decision, linked from the profile, explains why and lists the terms.
Do complaints against a doctor show up in a license lookup?
Usually not unless they lead to formal action. California, for example, keeps complaints and investigations confidential, and the National Practitioner Data Bank, which collects malpractice payment and adverse action reports, is not open to the public. A clean lookup means no public action on file, not a record free of complaints.
Does a DEA registration prove a doctor is licensed?
No. The DEA's registration verification tools are restricted to DEA registrants, and access is checked at login. A DEA registration relates to handling controlled substances and is not a medical license, so it cannot confirm that someone is licensed to practice. Use the state board lookup for that.
Does board certification replace a medical license?
No. A license is the legal permission a state grants to practice medicine. Board certification is a separate specialty credential; ABMS certification comes from its 24 Member Boards, and the ABMS Certification Matters site lets patients check it. One does not substitute for the other, so check each at its own source.
How can I tell whether a medical certificate or doctor's note is valid?
Look up the named clinician on the licensing board for the state shown on the note and confirm a current status and matching name. Then contact the issuing practice using details you find yourself, such as its own website or the address on the board record, not the phone number printed on the note.
How do I verify a nurse practitioner or physician assistant?
Nurse practitioners are licensed through the state board of nursing or the state's health licensing portal. Physician assistants appear in state lookups, and NCCPA's online verification confirms PA board certification and reportable NCCPA disciplinary actions since 2012.
How to verify a doctor's license
- Get the doctor's full name and state. You need the physician's full name and the state where they practice. For telehealth, that is generally the state where you are located during the visit, and state medical boards generally expect the physician to hold a license or a telehealth registration there.
- Search the state medical board. Every state runs a free public license lookup, through its medical board, its osteopathic board for a D.O., or a health department portal. Search for the state name plus 'medical board license lookup' and use the board's official site. The record shows license status, issue and expiration dates, and public disciplinary actions.
- Cross-check on DocInfo.org. DocInfo, run by the Federation of State Medical Boards, aggregates license and disciplinary data across all states for free. It is the fastest way to see every state where a physician holds or has held a license.
- Look up the NPI if you need identity confirmation. The free NPI registry (npiregistry.cms.hhs.gov) confirms a provider's identity, specialty, and practice details. Note: an NPI is an identifier, not a license; it does not prove the doctor is licensed or in good standing.
- Read the disciplinary history in context. License records list formal actions. A decades-old administrative citation is not the same as a recent suspension for patient harm; read what the action was for and when.
- For telehealth, check the state match. Confirm the clinician is licensed in the state where you are located during the visit, which can differ from where you live when you travel. A legitimate telehealth service can tell you who reviewed your case and under which state license.
Sources
This article is based on the following primary sources. Links open the original documents.
- 1.DocInfo physician licensing and board action search · Federation of State Medical Boards · accessed
- 2.News release: Docinfo tool provides consumers physician licensure and disciplinary data (August 19, 2015) · Federation of State Medical Boards · accessed
- 3.Licensure Verification Information, state medical and osteopathic boards (last revised May 2023) · Federation of State Medical Boards · accessed
- 4.License Verification: physician and surgeon license search · Medical Board of California · accessed
- 5.Physician Profile Description: license status and disciplinary terms · Medical Board of California · accessed
- 6.Physician License Lookup: Public Disclosure · Medical Board of California · accessed
- 7.MQA License Verification search portal · Florida Department of Health · accessed
- 8.Florida Telehealth: out-of-state telehealth provider registration · Florida Department of Health · accessed
- 9.About Us: What is the NPDB? · Health Resources and Services Administration, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services · accessed
- 10.NPPES NPI Registry public search · Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services · accessed
- 11.45 CFR 162.406, Standard unique health identifier for health care providers · Legal Information Institute, Cornell Law School · accessed
- 12.45 CFR 162.410, Implementation specifications: Health care providers · Legal Information Institute, Cornell Law School · accessed
- 13.What is ABMS Board Certification? · American Board of Medical Specialties · accessed
- 14.Certification Matters: certification lookup for patients · American Board of Medical Specialties · accessed
- 15.Registration: Registrant Validation Toolset · Drug Enforcement Administration, Diversion Control Division · accessed
- 16.21 CFR 1301.11, Persons required to register · Legal Information Institute, Cornell Law School · accessed
- 17.Interstate Medical Licensure Compact: FAQs · Interstate Medical Licensure Compact Commission · accessed
- 18.Interstate Medical Licensure Compact Commission home page · Interstate Medical Licensure Compact Commission · accessed
- 19.Verify PA-C: board certification and reportable disciplinary actions · National Commission on Certification of Physician Assistants · accessed
Majesta Health articles are written against primary sources (FDA labeling, NIH and CDC publications, state statutes) and each one passes a documented compliance review before publication. Where an article cites external sources, they are listed at the end of that article so you can check them yourself. No article currently carries an individual physician review; when a physician reviews an article, that page will show the reviewer's name, NPI and review date.
- Written against primary sources: FDA labeling and safety communications, NIH and CDC publications, state statutes and medical board rules
- Documented compliance review against FDA, FTC and LegitScript requirements before publication
- External sources, where an article cites them, are listed at the end of that article with links to the original documents
- Compounded medications are described as not FDA-approved as final products on every page that mentions them