If you are receiving Medicare and/or Medicaid, it can often be difficult to find a doctor, be it a general practitioner or specialist, who will accept your insurance

1. How to Find Doctors Who Accept Medicare and Medicaid
If you are receiving Medicare and/or Medicaid, it can often be difficult to find a doctor,
be it a general practitioner or specialist, who will accept your insurance. Unfortunately
the payment schedules set up by the government have resulted in many doctors opting out
of the system because they simply cannot afford the substantially lower payments for
Medicaid/Medicare services as well as afford to pay for the substantially greater
paperwork involved in taking such patients.
Sadly, government has had a tendency to reduce reimbursement payments, not increase
them, and do not seem to be interested in covering the actual cost of providing services.
Not only that, but private insurers are not longer willing to "subsidize" public patients by
paying higher rates, so doctors cannot shift the ever-increasing costs to them.
As a result, at a time when more and more doctors are opting out of the system, those
doctors who still take Medicare and Medicaid patients generally limit the number they
will serve, so finding a doctor who will take your Medicare or Medicaid insurance is not
as easy as simply opening the phone book and making a phone call. Indeed, it probably
will take some real time and effort on your part.
There is not, and never has been, any requirement that doctors treat patients insured by
Medicare or Medicaid. Therefore, people with Medicare or Medicaid are increasingly
turning to federally funded clinics, or even to emergency rooms that cannot, by law, turn
them away. Sadly, using emergency rooms for non-emergency health care is
unbelievably expensive, making the lower reimbursement Medicare/Medicaid rates not
financially wise in the long run.
So, how do you find a doctor that will take new Medicare/Medicaid patients?
Well, first of all, do not expect to find a doctor or, should you find one or a clinic taking
Medicare/Medicaid patients, do not plan on getting an appointment quickly. Sadly, that
will not happen very often. Indeed, if you need quick care, the emergency room is likely
to be your only recourse.
To track down Medicare/Medicaid providers, you can contact your local health
department or social service agencies to find out more information and there are a
number of Medicare and Medicaid doctor directories online. While they cannot guarantee
you an appointment, they do have access to information about current providers.
Also, managed care is probably a better bet than private practice. HMOs organized by
private insurers have a practical interest in having HMO doctors taking government-
insured patients, while Prepaid Health Plans (PHs) are generally run by hospitals or
medical schools, and often only accept Medicaid patients.

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