Make sure you have your insurance card with you.It’s best to bring the actual bottles, but if you can’t, bring your most up-to-date medication list. Assemble your meds (including vitamins and supplements).If you want an ally in the room with you, make sure that person is able to come with you to the appointment.Separate just the important ones and place them on top.) Don’t hand your doctor a six-inch stack of papers and expect her to read them in detail.
If you’ve had any recent tests at another medical facility that is not connected with your doctor, bring those results. (Usually a few days or a week is enough time, but check with the office to be sure.) If your doctor had asked you to do certain tests in advance (blood work, X-rays), make sure you do them with enough time to allow the results to be available for your doctor. If there’s a new symptom that you need evaluated, keep a symptom diary ahead of your visit. Be aware that it can sometimes take a week or two to obtain those records, and you might be charged a “reasonable fee” for the results. If you are seeing your general doctor, dig out your vaccine card and results of your last mammogram or colonoscopy (if you did them at another health system). Be sure to ask what documentation to bring with you. Some clinics and health centers offer sliding-scale fees or payment plans while others require payment up front. If you don’t have insurance and are paying out-of-pocket, it’s essential to call the office before your appointment because fees can run the gamut. It’s never easy to call your insurance company, but you can minimize unpleasant surprises if you get a handle on technicalities of your health plan like co-pays, deductibles and co-insurance, and whether things like preventive care, mental health, physical therapy, drug rehab and out-of-network referrals are covered. If you get your insurance through your employer, your Human Resources department may be able to help guide you to some of these tools. Your insurance company's website may offer an online tool comparing the cost of having the same procedure or visit with different doctors. In terms of costs, it’s not often the first thing you want to think of, especially if you are dealing with a concerning symptom, but it’s important to be aware of how different choices might impact your bottom line. Your primary care doctor can also guide you to institutions that might have particular experience with specific conditions. A doctor who you can get in touch with on the phone or through secure email.įor uncommon illnesses, do internet research to see if there are doctors whose primary focus is that disease. A doctor who engages his or her patients in decision-making, as opposed to simply rattling off a to-do list. A doctor who takes his or her time talking with you, as opposed to making you feel like you’re at a drive-through fast-food joint. If you know any medical professionals, you can ask them to recommend a doctor they trust and who is known as a good listener and a thoughtful person.Īsk friends who’ve had a lot of experience dealing with the medical system - here's what I recommend looking for: However, this, too, needs to be taken with a grain of salt.įor non-procedure-based specialties (sometimes called cognitive specialties, such as internal medicine, pediatrics, psychiatry or infectious disease) there aren’t comparable statistics because there are fewer concrete things to measure. Medicare also has a website ( Physician Compare) that publishes physician performance scores on various self-reported quality metrics. Propublica has created a website that publishes the complication rate (and the death rate) for surgeons in the United States doing eight common elective surgical procedures. A doctor’s experience correlates with fewer complications for his or her patients. When it comes to complex medical procedures, more is better. If you are looking for a specialist to do a particular procedure (like hip replacement, cataract surgery, a CT-guided biopsy or heart valve surgery), look for a physician who does lots of them. 
Be sure to ask about their fees before you book an appointment. If you don’t have insurance, look up local clinics and health centers. You should also check with your insurance company - find out which doctors are in network and conveniently located. You can glance at these online ratings sites, but be sure to take them with an enormous grain of salt. Comments often reflect easily observed items like waiting time and amiability of the office staff, which have little bearing on how good a doctor really is. Endless websites compare and contrast home appliances but these same type of sites offer limited information to help you select a doctor. These days, it’s easier to pick out a blender than a doctor.
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