Our Clinicians

1How the corporate structure works — and why

Most U.S. states apply the corporate practice of medicine doctrine, which prohibits a non-physician-owned company from employing physicians to practice medicine or from interfering with clinical judgment. Telehealth platforms are structured around that rule, and ours is no exception.

Velcrest Holdings LLC d/b/a StarMeds

Builds and operates the platform, and handles scheduling, billing, logistics, and support. It does not practice medicine, does not employ prescribing clinicians, and does not dispense medication.

Affiliated medical group

An independent professional entity, together with affiliated professional entities in states that require local ownership. It employs or contracts with the clinicians who evaluate you and issue prescriptions. Clinical policy and every individual prescribing decision belong to the medical group.

Dispensing pharmacies

Independent, state-licensed U.S. pharmacies, which prepare and dispense prescriptions against a patient-specific order.

In practice this means: no one at StarMeds can override your clinician, appeal their decision, or get you a prescription they declined to write. If a support representative ever suggests otherwise, that is wrong, and we want to hear about it.

2Licensing and state matching

You are matched only with a clinician who holds an active, unrestricted license in the state where you are physically located at the time of the encounter — not where you live, not where you get mail, but where you actually are.

That is why the intake asks for your location. If you move or travel, update your location before your next encounter; care may need to be transferred to a clinician licensed in the new state. Some states require a live audio-video visit before a prescription may be issued.

Your clinician's full name, credentials, and license number appear in your patient portal after your first review. You can verify any license independently through that state's medical or nursing board — we encourage it.

3Credentialing standards

Before a clinician sees a patient on the platform, the medical group verifies:

• Primary-source license verification in every state where they will practice, re-verified at each renewal;
• Education and training — medical, osteopathic, nurse-practitioner, or physician-assistant degree, and residency or equivalent where applicable;
• Board certification status, where the clinician holds it;
• DEA registration, where relevant to their scope;
• National Practitioner Data Bank query and malpractice history review;
• Exclusion screening against the OIG List of Excluded Individuals/Entities and the federal SAM database;
• Active professional liability coverage at or above the medical group's required limits.

4How clinicians are paid

Clinicians are compensated for their clinical time. They receive no additional payment for issuing a prescription, no payment tied to which medication is chosen, no bonus based on approval rate, and no payment from any pharmacy or manufacturer.

There is no quota, and declining to prescribe costs a clinician nothing.

5What your clinician will actually do

• Read your intake in full — history, medications, allergies, and symptoms.
• Ask for more if it is thin. Records from another provider, laboratory testing, photographs, or a live audio or video visit.
• Look for another explanation first. Common conditions and medication side effects are worth ruling out before assuming a treatment is the answer.
• Decide. Prescribe, decline, or refer. A decision not to prescribe is a legitimate clinical result, not a failure of the process.
• Follow up. Dose adjustment, side-effect management, and secure messaging for as long as you are a patient.

Read the Telehealth Informed Consent for the limitations of remote evaluation, and the Important Safety Information for what is and is not known about the medication.

6Concerns about your care

If you have a concern about the care you received, email care@starmeds.com or call +19726164954 with the subject line "Clinical Concern". Clinical concerns are routed to the medical group's clinical leadership, not to customer service.

You also have the right to complain to the medical or nursing board in the state where you received care.