Questions to Ask When Selecting a Physician

Questions to Ask When Selecting a Physician

If you work for a company that offers health insurance coverage to its employees, you are most likely aware of the term “open enrollment.” It’s that time of the year when your employer provides you the opportunity to make changes on your health care coverage.

It may entail adding a dependent to your coverage, changing your Primary Care Physician, changing your health plan, adding another type of coverage (vision, mental health, alternative medicine, etc) or any one of a number of potential open enrollment decisions.

If you ever need to find a new Primary Care Physician for yourself or a family member, there are several key questions to ask in order to make an informed choice. These include:

•	Where do you wish to receive medical care … close to your place of work or your home? Is the physician’s office near one or both of these locations?

•	What is the specialty of the Primary Care Physician you are seeking? Primary Care Physicians are usually family practitioners, general practitioners, internal medicine practitioners or pediatricians.

•	Is the physician you are considering affiliated with the health insurance plan that your company provides?

•	Is the physician accepting new patients?

•	Is the physician a member of the medical group or IPA that you wish to join?

•	Does the physician have admitting privileges at the hospital(s) of your choice?

•	What is the physician’s medical education, training background and experience?

•	Is the physician Board Certified in his or her chosen specialty?

•	Does the physician meet your personal preferences? Male? Female? Age? Languages spoken in the office?

•	Does the physician offer extended weekday and/or weekend hours?

Little Company of Mary offers two different types of services that can help you find answers to some of the above questions:

1) Physician Search on our Website
The physician link will allow you to access our large physician data base. You can find a physician by location (city) or by specialty. There are over 1,300 South Bay and Harbor community physicians listed, and their listings are constantly updated.

2) Physician Referral Service
This telephone service is available Monday – Friday, 7 a.m. to 6 p.m. The toll-free phone number is (800) 618-6659.

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