Remember the old fashioned family practitioner? He treated both the parents and their children, made house calls, and handled everything from colds to broken bones to delivering babies. The ranks of this multi-faceted medical professional began thinning around the time color TV was introduced. But now Primary Care Physicians (PCPs) are bringing back many of the classic family practitioner traditions. PCPs see the entire patient, not just an isolated part or condition that would otherwise land them in the office of a specialist. PCPs also help patients maintain overall health by focusing on preventive care. Many insurance companies now require patients to chose a Primary Care Physician who is then charged with making any referrals to specialists. If you’re not sure whether you’re required to have a PCP with your current health insurance, you should find out right away.

Which doctors qualify as Primary Care Physicians?

• General Practice: A general practitioner is qualified to care for the entire family. A GP can be board-certified and have training in a variety of subjects including Obstetrics and Gynecology, Pediatrics, Internal Medicine and Psychiatry. GPs are getting harder to find, especially in certain states.
• Internal Medicine: An internist can diagnose and treat disease with medicine. An internist is not a surgeon. There are several sub-specialties an internist can have, including: specializing in a particular organ, like the lungs or the kidneys, a particular disease, like diabetes, or a particular age group, like the elderly.
• Pediatrics: A pediatrician specializes in the overall well-being of children. Most pediatricians treat children from birth until adolescence or about 14 years old. Pediatricians can have sub-specialties such as surgery or pediatric cardiology.

How can you find a Primary Care Physician?
Gone are the days when you could just pick a name out of the phone book. If your insurance company requires you to choose a PCP, you may want to take time to research your options. Looking up a physician’s education and practice history online is a good place to begin, but unless you’re a physician yourself, much of the information you find online may not have a great deal of meaning for you. Other practical sources for your research include:

• Your health insurance company. Your health insurance company may have listings of doctors in their network who are accepting new patients. Choosing a PCP is often the first step in seeking treatment under an HMO or PPO plan. PCPs will handle any referrals to specialists you need.
• Personal referral. People often ask their friends, families and co-workers for referrals to Primary Care Physicians. If someone you respect and trust has a positive experience with a doctor, it’s more likely you too will like that particular physician.
• Current Physicians. If you are moving to a new area, you could ask your current physician to help you find a PCP in your new neighborhood.
• Hospitals. It is common for hospitals to offer a referral service that can provide you with the names of staff doctors who meet certain criteria you may be seeking, such as specialty, gender, experience and location.

Why should you choose a Primary Care Physician?
If you wait until you’re sick to choose a PCP, you will almost surely pick the one closest to you geographically, or the one who can fit a new patient into his schedule the soonest. This is the wrong way to begin. In addition, Primary Care Physicians see their patients regularly, and are trained to look for symptoms a patient may not notice. Annual exams may help your PCP guide you toward healthy lifestyle habits that may decrease the likelihood that you’ll need expensive specialty care. In most cases, a PCP will need to refer you to a specialist should you need one. PCPs can educate patients on healthy habits and catch early warning signs that may require further investigation. For example, a routine health exam may uncover conditions such as high blood pressure or even hormonal imbalances due to glandular problems. Health problems like these can go unnoticed by the patient for years resulting in serious chronic health issues. Developing a relationship with your Primary Care Physician can help keep illnesses at bay. Remember the old adage: An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.

Most health insurance plans available for comparison at InsureMeOnline.com offer a list of PCPs for you to choose from.