Find Doctors Who Accept Medicare

Medicare has a website available for people to look up doctors.  Below is a press release about the site. This site is for people looking to find doctors who accept Medicare, so it is for people who use their Medicare card when they see a doctor.

If you are enrolled in a Medicare Advantage plan, you need to use the website of your plan to find doctors.  That’s because Medicare Advantage plans (HMOs and PPOs) have networks of contracted providers.  If you are in an HMO (and most Arizona Advantage plans are HMOs) you must use providers in the plan’s network. If you go out-of-network (except for emergencies and urgent care), your HMO Advantage plan will not pay your bills (and neither will Medicare).

From CMS:

Physician Compare, a website that allows consumers to search and compare information about hundreds of thousands of physicians and other health care professionals, has been redesigned to make the site easier to use and provide new information for consumers. The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) Administrator Marilyn Tavenner announced the redesign, which includes an improved search function and more frequently updated information.

“Nearly a million physicians and other health care professionals serve the Medicare population,” said CMS Administrator Marilyn Tavenner. “This vastly improved website will provide new information in an improved, easy-to-use format.”

Physician Compare was improved based on user and partner feedback, as part of improvements in the Affordable Care Act. The redesign includes new information on physicians, such as:

•             Information about specialties offered by doctors and group practices;

•             Whether a physician is using electronic health records;

•             Board certification; and

•             Affiliation with hospitals and other health care professionals.

Physician Compare is also now connected to the most consistently updated database so that consumers will find the most accurate and up-to-date information available. In 2014 quality data will be added, and this will help users choose a medical professional based on performance ratings.

Visit the Physician Compare website at http://www.medicare.gov/physiciancompare You can also go to www.medicare.gov and click on “Find doctors & other health professionals.”