How to check a doctor’s license and discipline record

You can check a doctor’s license and public discipline record by searching the online lookup of the state board that licensed them. State medical boards license doctors, and state law decides what those lookups have to show. A few federal tools add background, but the national data bank of malpractice payments and certain adverse actions isn’t open to the public.

This guide explains where to look, using Florida and Arizona as examples, and what a record can and can’t tell you. Rules differ from state to state.

Who licenses doctors

State medical boards license doctors and can discipline them. The board is usually the first place to look, because it holds the official record of whether a doctor is licensed and whether the state has taken action against that license.

Two examples show how this works:

• Arizona: the Arizona Medical Board licenses doctors of medicine (MDs). State law says its primary duty is “to protect the public” from incompetent, unqualified, impaired, or unprofessional practitioners through licensure and regulation, and its duties include disciplining physicians (A.R.S. § 32-1403(A)).
• Florida: doctors are licensed through boards within the Florida Department of Health. The department’s license search lists a Board of Medicine and a separate Board of Osteopathic Medicine, among many other boards and councils (Florida Department of Health, License Verification).

As Florida’s list shows, a state may have more than one board for physicians, so a doctor of osteopathic medicine (DO) can be licensed by a different board than an MD. Nurses, pharmacists, and other professionals have their own boards too. If you can’t find a doctor under one board, check whether a different board in that state licenses them.

If a doctor has practiced in another state, you can search that state’s board too.

Looking up a doctor in Florida

The Florida Department of Health runs a License Verification search. The department says you can use it to “verify the license status and disciplinary history” of a health care professional or facility licensed in Florida (Florida Department of Health, Complaints & Enforcement). You can search by name, and narrow the search by board.

Florida law also requires the department to publish a practitioner profile for licensed practitioners (Fla. Stat. § 456.041). Among other things, the law says:

• Discipline: for every final disciplinary action, the profile must give an easy-to-read description of the complaint and the discipline imposed, and the department must link to each final order in its online report of recent disciplinary actions (§ 456.041(3)).
• Malpractice claims: for doctors licensed under Florida’s medical and osteopathic practice acts, the profile must include certain paid malpractice claims reported within the previous 10 years, above a threshold set in the statute. When it does, the profile must also say that settlement “may occur for a variety of reasons” and should not be taken as a presumption that malpractice occurred (§ 456.041(4)).
• Hospital actions: the profile must include the date of a disciplinary action taken by a licensed hospital or ambulatory surgical center, and whether it related to professional competence (§ 456.041(5)).
• Criminal history: the profile must include criminal information that directly relates to the practitioner’s ability to practice, with a statement that federal criminal history information isn’t available to the public (§ 456.041(3)).
• Medicaid: the profile must say if a physician was terminated for cause from, or sanctioned by, the Florida Medicaid program (§ 456.041(6)).

The practitioner gets 30 days to review the profile and correct factual errors before it is made public. If the practitioner hasn’t reviewed it, the profile must say so in bold: “The practitioner has not verified the information contained in this profile” (§ 456.041(8)).

Looking up a doctor in Arizona

In Arizona, you search the website of the board that licenses the doctor, such as the Arizona Medical Board for MDs. A state law that covers Arizona’s health profession regulatory boards sets out what those websites show and what they leave off (A.R.S. § 32-3214):

• Disciplinary actions must be on the board’s website for “not more than five years.” Final nondisciplinary orders are also posted for up to five years.
• Letters of concern and advisory letters may not be posted on the website, but a copy is available to the public and must be provided to anyone who asks.
• Dismissed complaints may not appear on the website, but the record is available from the board under Arizona’s public records law.
• Pending complaints and investigations may not be disclosed to the public.

The law also requires each board’s website to say that you can get additional public records about a licensee, including dismissed complaints and nondisciplinary actions, by contacting the board directly. So a website search in Arizona may not show everything the board has. For an older action or a closed complaint, you can ask the board.

What Medicare’s Care Compare shows

If a doctor treats Medicare patients, the federal Care Compare tool on Medicare.gov may have a profile page for them. CMS, the federal agency that runs Medicare, says patients and caregivers can use the tool “to search for and compare clinicians and groups enrolled in Medicare” (CMS, Care Compare: Doctors and Clinicians Initiative).

According to CMS, the general information on a doctor’s profile page includes their name, addresses and phone numbers, medical specialties, Medicare assignment status, board certifications, education, gender, group, hospital, and facility affiliations, telehealth services, and procedure volume data (CMS, Doctors and Clinicians FAQs). Where it’s available, performance information from Medicare’s Quality Payment Program appears as star ratings, percent scores, and check marks.

Keep in mind:

• Not every doctor has a page. CMS says a doctor must meet enrollment criteria, including approved status in Medicare’s enrollment system and a Medicare claim or new enrollment within the last 12 months.
• CMS’s list of general profile information doesn’t include license discipline. For discipline, go to the state board.
• CMS says board certification data comes from certification and accrediting organizations, such as the American Board of Medical Specialties.

The National Practitioner Data Bank isn’t public

You may read about the National Practitioner Data Bank (NPDB), a federal database run under the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. It holds reports on medical malpractice payments and certain adverse actions against health care practitioners. The NPDB itself says its reports “are confidential, and not available to the public” (NPDB, About Us).

Federal regulations list who can get NPDB information. The list includes hospitals checking their own medical staff, state licensing boards, health care entities hiring or credentialing a practitioner, and practitioners asking about themselves (45 C.F.R. § 60.18). Anyone else can request only statistical information that doesn’t identify any individual. Information from the NPDB is confidential and may be used only for the purpose for which it was provided (45 C.F.R. § 60.20).

The same regulation has a narrow exception for a person who has already filed a malpractice claim against a hospital, when the hospital failed to check the NPDB as required. That’s a question for an attorney, not a way for patients to look up a doctor.

Some of what the NPDB holds can still reach the public through a state. Florida, for example, requires the Department of Health to check malpractice claims and discipline against the NPDB at licensure and renewal, and its physician profiles reflect what the NPDB reports (Fla. Stat. § 456.041(1)(b)).

What a record can and can’t tell you

A license lookup is useful, but it has limits. Keep these in mind before you draw conclusions either way.

Complaints are often confidential at first

A complaint doesn’t show up online as soon as it’s filed. In Florida, a complaint and the investigation file are confidential until 10 days after probable cause is found, or until the practitioner waives confidentiality (Fla. Stat. § 456.073(10)(a)). In Arizona, a pending complaint or investigation may not be disclosed to the public (A.R.S. § 32-3214(A)).

Websites may show only part of the history

Arizona’s five-year website limit is one example. Older actions, letters of concern, and dismissed complaints may be available only by asking the board.

A clean record doesn’t settle anything about your care

A doctor with no public discipline can still make a mistake, and a doctor with past discipline may have provided proper care to you. Board records describe the board’s own actions. They don’t decide whether a particular patient was harmed by negligent care.

Board discipline isn’t the same as a malpractice claim

Licensing boards act on the license. Florida’s Department of Health says its actions are administrative, such as a reprimand, fine, probation, or suspension, and that it “cannot represent you in civil matters to recover fees paid or seek remedies for injuries” (Florida Department of Health). Whether a patient has a legal claim is a separate question under state law.

If you’re checking because of a concern

Some people look up a doctor before choosing one. Others look after something went wrong. If you’re in the second group:

• Get medical care for any new or worsening symptoms first. In an emergency, call 911.
• Save or print what you find in a lookup, with the date. Websites change, and Arizona limits website posts to five years.
• Keep your own notes and records private, and share them only with your doctors or an attorney you choose.
• You can file a complaint with the licensing board. That’s a separate process from any legal claim, and it doesn’t pause legal deadlines.

We never evaluate anyone’s situation. An attorney licensed in your state, usually working with a medical expert, decides whether care fell below the standard and whether it caused harm. For the steps that come after a possible mistake, read what to do if you think a doctor made a mistake, and see our overview of medical malpractice. To learn how our service will connect people with independent participating attorneys, see how it works.

What has changed since we first wrote about this

MalpracticeAttorneys.com first covered checking up on a doctor in 2015, in an article by Howard Neu. That article is no longer online. Laws and rules have changed since then, and this guide was written new from current sources checked on September 26, 2026.

Two changes we verified:

• California now requires some doctors on probation to tell patients. An earlier article on this site asked whether California patients would be told when their doctor was on probation. For probation orders made on or after July 1, 2019, California requires a doctor on probation for certain reasons, such as sexual misconduct with a patient or drug or alcohol abuse that directly harmed patients, to give patients a separate written disclosure of the probation before their first visit and to get a signed copy, with some exceptions such as emergency visits. The medical board must also show the probation’s causes, length, and practice restrictions on the doctor’s online profile (Cal. Bus. & Prof. Code § 2228.1).
• Medicare’s doctor tool moved. CMS says it transitioned public reporting on doctors from its earlier Physician Compare website to the compare tool on Medicare.gov in 2020 (CMS, Doctors and Clinicians FAQs).

Rules can keep changing. Confirm current law with an attorney licensed in your state.

Sources and corrections

We wrote this guide from the primary sources below and checked it against them on September 26, 2026.

• Florida Department of Health, License Verification: Florida license search and boards
• Florida Department of Health, Complaints & Enforcement: license status and disciplinary history; administrative actions
• Fla. Stat. § 456.041: Florida practitioner profiles
• Fla. Stat. § 456.073: confidentiality of Florida complaints
• A.R.S. § 32-1403: Arizona Medical Board duties
• A.R.S. § 32-3214: Arizona board websites and public records
• CMS, Care Compare: Doctors and Clinicians Initiative: purpose of the Medicare.gov compare tool
• CMS, Doctors and Clinicians FAQs: profile contents, eligibility, data sources, 2020 transition
• Medicare.gov Care Compare: the compare tool
• National Practitioner Data Bank, About Us: what the NPDB holds; not public
• 45 C.F.R. § 60.18: who may request NPDB information
• 45 C.F.R. § 60.20: NPDB confidentiality
• Cal. Bus. & Prof. Code § 2228.1: California probation disclosure

We are not attorneys, and this guide is not legal advice. Laws change and differ from state to state. If anything here is out of date or wrong, email support@malpracticeattorneys.com with the page name, and we’ll review it and update the page.