If you’ve ever gone doctor shopping, you know it can be an intimidating venture. After all, you want a doctor who is experienced, convenient, friendly and easy to talk to. Combine that with great staff and suitable payment options and it can be tough to find exactly what you’re looking for. Here are some tips to finding a great doctor.
1. Work from Your In-Network List
It may seem like a trivial detail, but there’s nothing worse than finding a great doctor only to realize he or she is not within your health insurance carrier’s network. Instead of getting disappointed, start out by working from doctors you already know are in-network. Your insurance carrier’s website should have this information.
2. Choose an Expertise
Although you’re looking for a primary care physician, these doctors come with a variety of backgrounds, some of which may suit your needs better than others. Determine what background you’re looking for, from internal medicine to endocrinology to family practice. This will help narrow your options.
3. Talk to Friends
If you have local friends or family, ask them about their doctors and whether or not they’d recommend them. It can be easier to trust a physician your family or friends have had great experiences with. Of course, you’ll have to determine whether these doctors are in your health plan’s network.
4. Think About Convenience
You may have found the best doctor in the world, but if it takes 5 weeks to get an appointment with her or she’s located 45 minutes away, you wind up settling for more convenient options anyway. Think about the doctor’s location and wait times before you make your decision.
5. Ask about Communication
How you can communicate with your new doc is important. Ask the office staff how easy it is to talk to the doctor over the phone or via email. If communication is challenging, you may want to rethink using that doctor as your primary care physician.
6. Don’t be Afraid to Change
If you choose a PCP and then regret that decision, it’s okay to change your mind! It’s important that you like and trust your primary care physician, so keep looking until you get it right. When you find a great doctor, you’ll know.
Need help finding a doctor within your network? Give us a call and we’ll help you through it.
your number 6 in this article about not being afraid to change doctors or practitioners is interesting. I think people sometimes feel like they are stuck with their doctors without being satisfied, but feel loyal to their doctors. Now I just have to figure out what makes a good doctor for me and my family!
Jeff, you are correct. I think going forward we will be forced to change doctors more than we probably want to. Finding doctors that take our approved health insurance plans is becoming the number one challenge!
It was mentioned that it is important to find a doctor that is in your insurance network. It would be terrible to find out after the fact, that the appointment wasn’t covered by insurance. We recently moved to a new state, and are looking for a new family doctor. I will have to keep this in mind as we try to find the right one for our family.
My sister is looking for a new doctor since moving in the last month. I liked how you recommended asking local friends or family about their doctors. It sounds like a great way to start off a search for the right fit.
My husband and I are hoping to find a doctor that can handle our family’s medical needs. It makes sense to get recommendations from friends or family. We’ll be sure to ask the people around us that we can trust for referrals of good family doctors.
Thank you for explaining that you should consider how convenient the location is when choosing a primary physician. I’ve been wondering how to narrow down a few of my options. I’ll be sure to keep this in mind so that I can make a decision soon.
I appreciate your advice about considering the doctor’s wait time and location before choosing one. We live in a secluded part of town, so just getting into the nearest facility will take around 20 minutes. It would be nice if the pulmonologist I find works around that area.