Feel Confident In Your Care: How To Choose A Doctor And Prepare For A Visit

Visiting the doctor is an important part of staying healthy, whether you’re going for a regular checkup or seeing a specialist for a specific concern. Choosing the right doctor and preparing for your visit are key to making sure you feel confident in the care you receive.

Tips For Choosing A Doctor

Deciding on a doctor is an important part of caring for your health and well-being. From a primary care physician (PCP) to a specialist, you will want someone you can trust and partner with in maintaining or improving your health. Her are four tips to help you choose a doctor:

1. Gather referrals
   Get recommendations from family members, friends, or other care providers you already know and like.  Be sure to ask about qualities that are important to you, such as the ease of making an appointment or how much time they spend with patients.
   
   
2. Stay in your plan’s network
   Doctors in your plan’s network have negotiated certain rates with your health plan to help reduce your out-of-pocket costs. Doctors outside your network don’t have these negotiated rates so you could pay more out of pocket.
   
   
3. Review their education and experience
   You can look at where doctors went to medical school, where they completed their residency, and how long they’ve been practicing medicine. Most doctors in the United States are also board certified by the American Board of Medical Specialties. For example, primary care doctors can be board-certified in family or internal medicine. 
   
   
4. Call or visit
   Don’t hesitate to ask questions over the phone or schedule a consultation to meet the doctor in person. Make note of how long it takes to get an appointment, how friendly the office staff is, whether the doctor runs on schedule, and other things that may be important to you. 

How To Prepare For Your Next Appointment

Once you’ve chosen a doctor, preparing for an appointment can help ensure you get the help and information you need to feel confident about your health goals or care plan.

Whether you’re having an in-person or virtual visit, experiencing symptoms or completing a preventive checkup, it helps your appointment run smoothly if you do the following things beforehand:

• Make a list of everything you take. This can include prescriptions, over-the-counter medicines, vitamins, and herbal supplements. Be sure to also include how much you take each day.
  
  
• Think about including a family member or friend. They can help you think of questions for your doctor, review information with you after your appointment, or maybe even participate in your visit.
  
  
• Write down questions you want to ask. You can include questions like:
  
  
  • What can I do to prevent or delay health problems?
  • Should I make any changes to improve my health?
  • Are there tests or screenings I should have, based on my age or other risk factors?
  • When should I come back for another visit?

Support For Planning Your Next Appointment

Use the tips above as well as our other resources to prepare for your next appointment . If you have an Anthem health plan and need help finding a doctor in your plan’s network, you can use the Find Care tool when you log in to the Sydney^SM Health app or anthem.com.

As you start to prep for your next visit, you can also go to anthem.com/preventive-care to find basic preventive care guidelines based on your age and sex that may be helpful to review with your doctor.

Was this information helpful to you? Let us know. 

Sydney Health is offered through an arrangement with Carelon Digital Platforms, a separate company offering mobile application services on behalf of your health plan. 

Anthem Blue Cross and Blue Shield is the trade name of: In Colorado: Rocky Mountain Hospital and Medical Service, Inc. HMO products underwritten by HMO Colorado, Inc. In Connecticut: Anthem Health Plans, Inc. In Indiana: Anthem Insurance Companies, Inc. In Georgia: Blue Cross Blue Shield Healthcare Plan of Georgia, Inc. and Community Care Health Plan of Georgia, Inc. In Kentucky: Anthem Health Plans of Kentucky, Inc. In Maine: Anthem Health Plans of Maine, Inc. In Missouri (excluding 30 counties in the Kansas City area): RightCHOICE® Managed Care, Inc. (RIT), Healthy Alliance® Life Insurance Company (HALIC), and HMO Missouri, Inc. RIT and certain affiliates administer non-HMO benefits underwritten by HALIC and HMO benefits underwritten by HMO Missouri, Inc. RIT and certain affiliates only provide administrative services for self-funded plans and do not underwrite benefits. In Nevada: Rocky Mountain Hospital and Medical Service, Inc. HMO products underwritten by HMO Colorado, Inc., dba HMO Nevada. In New Hampshire: Anthem Health Plans of New Hampshire, Inc. HMO plans are administered by Anthem Health Plans of New Hampshire, Inc. and underwritten by Matthew Thornton Health Plan, Inc. In 17 southeastern counties of New York: Anthem HealthChoice Assurance, Inc. and Anthem HealthChoice HMO, Inc. In these same counties Anthem Blue Cross and Blue Shield HP is the trade name of Anthem HP, LLC. In Ohio: Community Insurance Company. In Virginia: Anthem Health Plans of Virginia, Inc. trades as Anthem Blue Cross and Blue Shield, and its affiliate HealthKeepers, Inc. trades as Anthem HealthKeepers providing HMO coverage, and their service area is all of Virginia except for the City of Fairfax, the Town of Vienna, and the area east of State Route 123. In Wisconsin: Blue Cross Blue Shield of Wisconsin (BCBSWI) underwrites or administers PPO and indemnity policies and underwrites the out-of-network benefits in POS policies offered by Compcare Health Services Insurance Corporation. Compcare underwrites or administers HMO or POS policies. Independent licensees of the Blue Cross and Blue Shield Association. Anthem is a registered trademark of Anthem Insurance Companies, Inc.

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