Simple answer: It affects your health AND your money.

Let’s use a simple diagnosis of high blood pressure. Finding out you have high blood pressure can be discouraging. However, if you catch it early enough, you can speak to your primary care doctor about lifestyle changes you can make. You pay your doctor’s co-pay and that’s it. Lifestyle changes are technically free. A little less of this, a little more of that. If you can avoid medication, great!

Maybe you’re not consistent in having regular doctor’s visits. If you catch it a little later, now you might need medication that you have to pay for to keep your blood pressure at a safe level. If you need it, please take it. That’s the nurse in me begging you. However, costs now will include your co-pays for your primary care doctor visits and the cost of a 30-day supply of your medication to your regular expenses. With lifestyle changes and medication, maybe one day your doctor will tell you awesome news that you don’t need to take the medication anymore. But wait until he/she directs you…please.

Oh, you done did it now.

Now let’s say you live in blissful ignorance with your high blood pressure. You decide to wait until you’re so uncomfortable that you HAVE to see a doctor. Maybe you go to an emergency room (EXPENSIVE) and your blood pressure is through the roof. Now if you weren’t on medication, JUST making lifestyle changes is no longer an option. Also, you’ll get started on higher doses of blood pressure medicine (aka anti-hypertensives).

If your body doesn’t respond to that, doctors will have to start mixing different classes (types) of anti-hypertensives just to keep your blood pressure down. You may now need a cardiologist (heart doctor) or a nephrologist (kidney doctor) to help manage your blood pressure and you’ll have a daily cocktail of pills. Who wants that? And what’s worse? You’re paying all these doctors when you could have just taken care of it with your primary care doctor. Specialists (pretty much any doctor that is not your primary care doctor) usually cost more to visit. That’s even more incentive to nip this issue in the bud early.

This isn’t foolproof

To be clear, this won’t work for every soul out there. Some people are genetically or environmentally predisposed to certain medical conditions. What this means is that they could do everything right and still come down with medical issues that require all we just discussed. However, most people out there can avoid the high costs of healthcare by regularly seeing the primary care doctor.

“But I don’t like my doctor?”

I have come across patients who don’t see a doctor because they don’t like the one they have. They have a doctor that won’t listen to them. They have a doctor that they feel pushes medications too much.

You know what? Keep searching. Find one you like and stick to them. That responsibility is your own. Co-pays add up so if you’re only supposed to see the doctor once a year under your insurance plan and you don’t like the primary care doctor you saw this year, use the year to search for another you can see next year. Ask family and friends who they have and like. Search for reviews. Eventually, you will find one you like that you can be comfortable following up with consistently. You’ll be healthier for it.

A great place to find a doctor in your area is Zocdoc. Zocdoc allows you to make appointments with doctors online. You can read reviews to see if they might be a good fit for you. Zocdoc also factors in your insurance. That way you don’t have to worry about making appointments with practitioners who will not accept your insurance. So if you want to check out Zocdoc, click HERE to get started.

What to look for in a doctor?

It all depends on what matters to you. I’ll tell you what I like about my primary care doctor.

• He’s accessible. I can call his office but he also has an email address that he makes available to his patients that he ACTUALLY responds to.
• He’s amused by me. I like having a friendly doctor who can laugh at a joke.
• He doesn’t push any tests or meds. I have intermittent headaches and he recommended a medication that I would have to take every day. I don’t get them enough to make that worth it so I said I’d rather not. He didn’t push it or say something like, “Then don’t complain to me again”. If I have a complaint that might benefit from a diagnostic imaging test, he ASKS if I would want to. Loooove it!

To-Do List

• Do you have a primary care doctor? If not, find one. Don’t like the one you have? Find another.
• If you have no health issues, plan on having a physical once a year. Max one every two years if your doctor agrees.
• Know your health problems aka diagnoses. Treat them as directed by a doctor. If you don’t like the treatment recommended, get a second PROFESSIONAL opinion. Not your auntie or best friend with no medical background.

Taking care of yourself is the main point.

I love my doctor. Do you? Share what you find helpful/not helpful about your doctor in the comments.