How to Find A Doctor That Accepts Medicare and Medicaid
With medical care being so expensive today many of us are on medicare or medicaid, but finding a doctor that will accept them is becoming more and more difficult. This has resulted from government reducing the percent of payment they will pay for a procedure while at the same time private insurers are no longer willing to subsidize public patients by paying higher rates. Therefore there is no place for doctors to shift the cost of payment to. So when more and more patients need medicare and medicaid less and less doctors are accepting these patients. So how do you find a doctor? Below we will try to give you a few ideas to try and make your search for a doctor a little easier.
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Instructions
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First, if you are lucky enough to find a doctor or clinic that does accept medicare or medicaid patients be patient. It will probably take some time for them to schedule an appointment. So allow time for your first visit. If it is an emergency you may want to go to a hospital emergency room.
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Second, to track down a medicare or medicaid provider, you can contact your local health department or social service agencies to find out more information. There are also many medicare and medicaid doctor directories online. These directories don't necessarily guarantee you an appointment, but they do give the names of current providers and a place for you to start.
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Third, you can go to the medicare website, Medicare.gov or call them at 1-800-633-4227 or{TTY 877-486-2048}, to find local medicare providers in your area. This does not always guarantee you finding a provider, but is a good place to start. Also if one doctor can not provide care they may be able to recommend one that can
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Fourth, you may also consider going to a managed care provider rather than a private practice doctor. HMOs organized by private insurers have an interest in having HMO doctors taking government insured patients.Prepaid health Plans {PHPs} are generally run by hospitals or medical schools and usually only take medicaid patients.
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