How to Select a Pediatrician for Cerebral Palsy

Children with cerebral palsy may require a team of physicians, including a developmental pediatrician who comes on board immediately after diagnosis. Developmental pediatricians may evaluate your child's progress in relation to other children the same age and refer your child to specialists.

Instructions

Difficulty: Moderate

Select a Pediatrician for Cerebral Palsy

1. Select a pediatrician or developmental pediatrician for cerebral palsy by speaking with the parents of other children affected by CP.
2. Select a pediatrician through referrals by other physicians.
3. Ask your health plan representative to give you a list of providers if your insurance plan requires you to stay within their network. If so, find out what the charge would be to go outside of the network should you prefer another doctor. Ask your insurance company how using a doctor outside of your plan's network will affect your billing, co-payments and deductibles.
4. Ask your pediatrician about billing procedures and whether she will accept your insurance.
5. Know that your pediatrician will generally lead and work with all of the health care professionals on your child's health care team, including speech, physical and occupational therapists. The pediatrician may call in additional doctors, such as an orthopedist and pediatric neurologist.
6. Select a pediatrician that you and your child feel comfortable with and who answers all of your questions.
7. Find out when you can contact your child's pediatrician if you have non-emergency questions. Ask about calling on nights and weekends and who handles the calls he can't take.
8. Ask your pediatrician what do if there's an emergency. Find out which hospital you should take your child to and who will be in charge of your child's medical care if your doctor is unavailable.
9. Keep all of the emergency medical information about your child in one place that is easy to reach in the event of an emergency and easy to find in case you are not home. Keep your child's medical history, insurance information, illnesses and any allergies to medication up to date and easy to reach.

Tips & Warnings

• Visit the American Medical Association website DoctorFinder page to finding licensing and credential information for all of the doctors on your child's team (see Resources below).
• Ask questions about your child's care and write down the answers. Make sure that all of your child's caregivers, therapists and teachers have the most current information regarding your child's medication and treatment.