How to Check Doctor Credentials and Reviews

Only about half of patients look into a doctor's background before their first visit. That's a missed opportunity. Board certification, disciplinary history, and quality data are all publicly available for free. Checking takes 5 minutes and can save you from a bad experience or worse.

Board Certification

The American Board of Medical Specialties (ABMS) certifies physicians across 40 specialty boards. About 940,000 doctors hold active certifications. Check any doctor at certificationmatters.org for free. Board certification means the doctor passed rigorous exams in their specialty and maintains ongoing education. It's not legally required to practice, but it's the standard marker of competence.

License and Disciplinary Actions

The Federation of State Medical Boards runs DocInfo.org, which aggregates licensing and disciplinary data from every state board. You can see if a doctor has active sanctions, license restrictions, or disciplinary actions. Your state medical board's own website often has more detailed records. Every state and territory has a licensing board.

Quality Data on Medicare Providers

CMS Care Compare (medicare.gov/care-compare) provides quality data on over 1.2 million physicians and clinicians who accept Medicare, including MIPS quality scores. You don't need to be on Medicare to use this tool. It shows data on patient experience, outcomes, and care quality.

What to Look For

Active board certification in the relevant specialty. No active disciplinary actions or license restrictions. Years of experience, especially for complex procedures (higher volume generally means better outcomes). Patient reviews can give you a sense of bedside manner and office efficiency, but take individual reviews with a grain of salt. The credential check matters more than the star rating on a review site.