Primary Care Physicians

Making healthy choices involves morhe than following a healthy diet and staying active. One of the most important — and often under-recognized — is how you select your primary care physician.

5 Benefits 

1. Trusted Resource: By establishing a relationship with a primary care physician, you gain a trusted resource. From a seasonal cold to more serious illnesses, your physician can diagnose and guide your care based on knowledge gained from seeing you each year.

2. Lifetime of Care: Your primary care physician understands your health history. With routine appointments, he or she can manage chronic conditions and prevent serious health complications — and help keep you out of the hospital.

3. Medication Advice: Your primary care physician knows which medications you take and your allergies. Having this knowledge is vital if you need medication advice or changes.

4. Referral Source: If you need more specialized care, your primary care physician can refer you to the right specialist for your needs. Because they know a network of experts, they also can streamline your referrals.

5. Convenient Care: Because your primary care physician can take care of multiple needs in one appointment, such as immunizations, health screenings and physicals, you’ll save time. Your routine primary care visits also are often covered by your health plan.

4 Tips

1. Find a physician in your network. Most health plans have special rates with certain physicians and health systems. Selecting a primary care physician in your network can prevent “out-of-network” charges and paying full, out-of-pocket costs.

2. Determine what kind of physician is right for you and your family. Many primary care physicians have specific areas of interest. You can choose from family medicine or internal medicine.

• Family medicine physicians treat everyone from newborns to the elderly.
• Internal medicine physicians often focus on adults.

3. Consider someone near you. Life can get busy. Having a physician that you don’t need to travel far to see can make life more convenient, especially when you aren’t feeling well.

4. Find someone you like. Everyone has unique needs and wants. Find a physician you trust and someone who makes you feel at ease. If you feel like a physician connects well with your personality and values, you will have more confidence in your care.

Find a Provider

Whether you're looking for a family medicine doctor, geriatric doctor, internal medicine doctor or pediatrician, we can help. Our Find a Provider feature makes it easy to find a primary care provider.