When seeking a new PCP from 1000s of choices, how best to filter/interview/decide?

Question

My insurance is great: It lets me choose from more than 3,000 possibilities for my primary care physician.

Its search engine is mediocre: I can see a small amount of info on each physician (location, gender, languages spoken, specialty, and year graduated) but no aggregate data.

My social skills and networking are poor: Any time I ask a co-worker or friend for advice, the conversation just embarrasses both of us. I have no dependents.

Ideally, my physician would score high points on the following:

1. Communicates extremely well in English, especially by e-mail, and will spend sufficient time to answer my questions and verify my I understanding.

2. Shares my focus on prevention and health, not treatment.

3. Has a staff that understands the insurance bureaucracy and can take most of the administrative burden off of me.

4. Stays current on recent research and findings.

I don't know why or whether to prefer "Family Practice" over "Internal Medicine" or "General Practice".

Answer 1

I love your question!

1. most doctors are now email friendly i.e. younger generation doctors, time is an issue, but email gives them the opportunity to write back early in am or from home etc so they may give you more time compared to what they can face to face in the clinic

2. lots of doctors do talk about preventative medicine, you have to ask them to talk about it and it will not take more than 5-10 minutes of a discussion

3. you bet they want to have staff and they do have staff that understands insurance since they want to get reimbursed

4. ask them if theuse how they update themselves, younger generation uses internet based updates and older generation loves to go to review and update courses

5. either family practice or internal medicine would be good, a good doctor is a good doctor! your experience will tell you if you made a good choice or not,

good luck