What are Medical Services Like in Maine? (Bangor, Ellsworth: health insurance, how much)

[glidingdoc]

Hi,

Does anyone have any information on the health care services in Maine?

Are Primary Care Physicians readily available? How much does your doctor charge for a visit to the surgery?

Do Primary Care Physicians do home visits?

What forms of health insurance work well? Are there any Health insurers that are better avoided? How do you decide on the level of health cover?

Steve. (I am from the United Kingdom so please feel free to state the obvious!!)

[Labamba]

Bangor is one of the most prominent healthcare centers in Maine:

Welcome to Eastern Maine Medical Center - Inspiring Confidence in Care

St. Joseph Healthcare : Welcome

Penobscot Community Health Care

[Maineah]

This question is far more complicated to answer than one might think.
The US has a myriad of health plan options through employers, individual insurers, the state, and federal governments (medicare and medicaid). There are Health Maintenence Organizations (HMO's),managed cooperative practices, private practices,emergency room treatment,walk in clinics, etc. etc.
There are a large number of Primary Care physicians around though access to them might be somewhat limited. We had to wait a year to get into the practice of a doctor after our old primary care physician moved from the area.
Meaning you can always find a doctor it just might not be the one you want.
It depends on your insurance provider. Some have strict lists of physicians they deal with and you must select from their lists. Others let you choose your doctor though may only pay a certain percentage of the cost of a visit.
Then there are the yearly deductibles you must meet before the insurance even kicks in.
Everyone's coverage is different and doctor's charges run from reasonable to outrageous.
As far as types of coverage to avoid I have not heard much love for the HMO's
The one thing doctors don't do almost universally is make house calls.

[Labamba]

Originally Posted by Maineah

This question is far more complicated to answer than one might think.
The US has a myriad of health plan options through employers, individual insurers, the state, and federal governments (medicare and medicaid). There are Health Maintenence Organizations (HMO's),managed cooperative practices, private practices,emergency room treatment,walk in clinics, etc. etc.
There are a large number of Primary Care physicians around though access to them might be somewhat limited. We had to wait a year to get into the practice of a doctor after our old primary care physician moved from the area.
Meaning you can always find a doctor it just might not be the one you want.
It depends on your insurance provider. Some have strict lists of physicians they deal with and you must select from their lists. Others let you choose your doctor though may only pay a certain percentage of the cost of a visit.
Then there are the yearly deductibles you must meet before the insurance even kicks in.
Everyone's coverage is different and doctor's charges run from reasonable to outrageous.
As far as types of coverage to avoid I have not heard much love for the HMO's
The one thing doctors don't do almost universally is make house calls.

Yeah, in a nutshell, the U.S. healthcare system is in crisis and will probably self destruct any day now, maybe even this afternoon around 2:30.

[dmyankee]

In the rural hospitals and clinics, you may have a wait to get a PCP who is popular.

There are many other docs and PA's or NP's who are more than happy to take on new patients. Certain specialists may take a few months or more to see if it is not an emergency.

In the rural hospitals and clinics, there are Doctors who will still make house calls under certain circumstances. The traveling nurses are great.

If you are not covered by your employer or have a government job, you will probably qualify for a high deductible health insurance premium at a premium price. It is not unusual for a policy to run into the $1k-$2k/month.

[genmomto5]

Are you thinking of practicing here? If so be careful to research licensing. From what I have seen the US is very close minded about accepting degrees from universities outside the country. You may end up needing to jump through hoops to be able practice legally here.

[MaineMathTCHER]

Being fairly new to the area we have had a great deal of trouble with medical and dental care. We have health insurance-it is finding doctors and dentists that are taking new patients. In our county (Washington) there are few doctors. We have had to drive to Ellsworth and Bangor to get services (2 hours away). So be aware of this if you need frequent doctors/dentists/medical care-you may have trouble finding the services in the smaller Northern and Eastern areas.

[lawmom]

There is a definite shortage of primary care providers throughout the entire country, especially in rural areas. There are programs springing up to encourage folks to go into primary care, for example, by deferring tuition to med school (I believe UMass is looking at this.)

The problem boils down to, among other things, the low payments primary care docs receive from medicare and medicaid. In rural and poorer areas, many, if not the majority of patients are on medicaid/medicare, and it's not a great incentive for docs to accept more of those patients or new ones to establish a practice there.

[Alt Dach]

We have a number od docs here in WI from Poland-they seem very well trained and nice-my wife loved the one she went to. Maybe it goes by state law?
Quite a number in Chicago area too.

[mollysmiles]

Originally Posted by lawmom

....The problem boils down to, among other things, the low payments primary care docs receive from medicare and medicaid. In rural and poorer areas, many, if not the majority of patients are on medicaid/medicare, and it's not a great incentive for docs to accept more of those patients or new ones to establish a practice there.

Exactly! Combined with the fact that these payments are very late when they are finally made the more rural areas of our state will continue to suffer, along with our rural hospitals. It is a problem that needs a remedy yesterday.