Savvy Senior

How to Find and Research Doctors Who Accept Medicare

Dear Savvy Senior,

What resources are available to help seniors locate and research Medicare doctors? My husband and I are approaching age 65 and need to find a new internist or primary care doctor who accepts Medicare. Our current doctor is not enrolled with Medicare and will not continue seeing us as Medicare patients.

Looking For Care

Dear Looking,

Depending on where you live, finding a new primary care doctor or specialist that accepts Medicare patients can be challenging. Because of low reimbursement rates and greater paperwork hassles, many doctors today have opted out of Medicare or they’re not accepting new patients with Medicare coverage.

With that said, Medicare is now offering a service that makes finding Medicare-approved doctors a little easier. And, there are a number of good resources available today that can help you check up on prospective doctors for free. Here’s what you should know.

Medicare Doctors

The government’s new online “Physician Compare” tool is one of the easiest ways to locate doctors in your area that accept traditional Medicare. Just go to http://www.medicare.gov/find-a-doctor where you can do a search by physician’s name, medical specialty or by geographic location. Or, if you don’t have Internet access you can also get this information by calling 800-633-4227.

Keep in mind, though, that locating a Medicare-approved doctor doesn’t guarantee you’ll be accepted as a patient. Many doctors limit the number of Medicare patients they accept while others have a full patient roster don’t accept any new patients. You’ll need to call the individual doctor’s office to find out.

Another option you may want to consider is to join a Medicare Advantage plan. These are government approved, private health plans (usually HMOs and PPOs) sold by insurance companies that you can choose in place of original Medicare. These plans may have more doctors available than original Medicare does. See http://www.medicare.gov/find-a-plan to research this option.

Doctor’s Check Up

After you’ve found a few Medicare-approved doctors that are accepting new patients, there are plenty of resources available today that can help you research them. Some of the best include HealthGrades, Vitals and RateMDs. These are free doctor-rating websites that provide important background information as well as consumer comments and ratings from past patients. Here’s a breakdown of what each site offers:

Healthgrades.com provides in-depth profiles on around 750,000 U.S. physicians including their education and training, hospital affiliations, board certification, awards and recognitions, professional misconduct, disciplinary action and malpractice records. It also offers a 5-star ratings scale from past patients on a number of issues like communication and listening skills, wait time, time spent with the patient, office friendliness and more.

Vitals.com provides some basic background information on around 720,000 U.S. doctors along with unedited comments from past patients and ratings on things like promptness, bedside manner, accurate diagnosis and more.

Ratemds.com primarily offers ratings and anonymous comments from past patients.

It’s a good idea to check out all three doctor-rating sites so you can get a bigger sampling and a better feel of how previous patients are rating a particular doctor.

Fee-Based Help

Another good resource to help you gather information is at angieslist.com (888-888-5478). This is a fee-based membership service that also offers doctors ratings and reviews from other members in your area for $7.60 for one month or $25 for the year.

Or, consider purchasing a copy of the “Consumers’ Guide to Top Doctors.” Created by Consumers’ Checkbook, a nonprofit consumer organization, this book will help you find top-rated doctors that have been recommended by other doctors. Their database lists 24,000 physicians, in 35 different fields of specialty, in 50 metro areas. The cost for this guide is $25 plus shipping and handling (call 800-213-7283 to order a copy), or you can view the information online at checkbook.org/doctors for $25.

Send your senior questions to: Savvy Senior, P.O. Box 5443, Norman, OK 73070, or visit SavvySenior.org. Jim Miller is a contributor to the NBC Today show and author of “The Savvy Senior” book.