Checklist for any clinic
Use these cards with any clinic you are considering, in person or through telehealth, meaning care over video, phone or an online form. Each card covers one part: the prescriber who writes the prescription, the pharmacy, the medicine, the health check, what to watch for and the price. This guide does not rank, list or connect readers with clinics.
Start the checks
Six short checks
Going in order is easiest, but each card stands on its own, so start with the one you need most. Write down the answer, then verify the parts that have a public record. A polished website is not a record.
Pass A · Prescriber
Every state has a medical board that publishes physician licence status and public discipline.
A clean public record means no public action is shown; it is not a rating of the clinician’s care.
Find the medical-board routePass B · Pharmacy
As of September 2026, an ordinary pharmacy that made medicine to order for one named patient with a prescription was often called a 503A pharmacy. The name comes from the section of the law that allows it.
As of September 2026, a larger facility called a 503B outsourcing facility could make batches without a prescription for each patient. It had to follow the quality rules that drug factories follow, and FDA inspected it. Knowing which kind you are dealing with tells you which record to check: a state pharmacy licence, or FDA’s list of registered facilities.
As of September 2026, being registered with FDA did not mean FDA had approved the facility or its medicines. A state pharmacy licence was a separate check.
Use FDA’s state pharmacy links Check FDA’s list of batch facilitiesPass C · Product
As of September 2026, FDA-approved tirzepatide came under the Mounjaro and Zepbound names in pens and vials.
As of September 2026, anything not made by Lilly was not an FDA-approved tirzepatide product.
As of September 2026, compounded medicine could serve an individual need, but it was not FDA-approved.
Pass D · Assessment
In May 2026, the national group of state medical boards issued guidance on prescribing. It said picking a treatment from a list of options, with no real health check, is not proper care.
The same guidance says patients need a way to ask follow-up questions.
A tick-box form on its own is a warning sign. If the clinician never asks you follow-up questions about your health, it is not a proper assessment.
Pass E · Safety
The tirzepatide labels flag thyroid-cancer history, serious stomach trouble, pancreas and gallbladder trouble, diabetic eye disease, pregnancy, birth control pills, other diabetes medicines and upcoming surgery as topics for the prescriber.
Both labels also carry a boxed warning over thyroid tumors that turned up in rats, with the effect in humans unknown.
Read the Zepbound labelPass F · Cost
As of September 26, 2026, Lilly’s cash prices for Zepbound, paid without insurance, ran from $299 to $699 a month. That covered vials or the KwikPen, a pen that holds four weekly doses. The price depended on the strength and on whether each refill was bought on time.
The same date, Lilly’s published list-price range was $499 to $1,086.37 per fill.
The list price is the maker’s official published price, and few people pay it. The cash price is what you would pay Lilly directly without insurance. With insurance, your share can be different again. These offers were due to expire on December 31, 2026.
Warning cards
One clear red flag is enough to ask more questions. Several together are a strong reason to leave.
As of September 2026, selling a prescription medicine without a prescription was against federal law.
As of September 2026, FDA had warned sellers that a research label did not turn a product marketed for human injection into a lawful medicine.
As of September 2026, a claim that a compounded drug was FDA-approved was false.
FDA has found fake compounded tirzepatide carrying labels that listed pharmacies which either did not exist or never made the product.
A form with no conversation is not enough. The clinician must be able to ask you follow-up questions and collect the health history that proper care needs.
Verification desk
A licence lookup answers whether a licence exists. It does not measure quality of care. As of September 2026, an FDA registration answered whether a facility registered. It did not approve the facility or its drugs.
Prescriber
Check the name, licence status and any public discipline in the official state record.
Find the boardPharmacy
Use the FDA route to the state database and search the pharmacy name printed on the label.
Find the pharmacy record