Navigating Healthcare After Graduation

For years, it seemed like school would nev­er end. Yet before you knew it, you’ve said good­bye to your last class and you’re get­ting your adult­ing on. 

Becom­ing respon­si­ble for your own health­care might not be first on your to-do list just yet – but it should be in one of the top spots. 

Nav­i­gat­ing health­care can be over­whelm­ing, but it’s impor­tant. Here are five things to do as you start tak­ing charge of your own care:

1. Choose a Pri­ma­ry Care Provider (PCP)

The first step is under­stand­ing the two types of PCPs who treat adults. Inter­nal med­i­cine providers (internists) typ­i­cal­ly only see adult patients. Fam­i­ly med­i­cine providers care for patients of all ages, from infan­cy to adulthood. 

Both types of providers are well equipped for your pri­ma­ry care needs. It comes down to find­ing which one best fits your indi­vid­ual needs and preferences. 

An internist may be right for you if you have mul­ti­ple chron­ic con­di­tions, have health­care con­cerns that are more com­mon in adult­hood (like fam­i­ly plan­ning), or need spe­cial­ized care for con­di­tions like dia­betes or heart disease.

A fam­i­ly med­i­cine provider may be the right choice if you are inter­est­ed in over­all well­ness, plan to have chil­dren and want your whole fam­i­ly to see the same provider, or already see a fam­i­ly med­i­cine provider and don’t want to switch providers.

It’s okay if you don’t have a pref­er­ence. You might be more inter­est­ed in pri­or­i­tiz­ing fac­tors like when they’re avail­able or which lan­guages they speak, so you don’t nec­es­sar­i­ly need to lim­it your search to just one type of provider. 

Also read: Impor­tance of Hav­ing a Pri­ma­ry Care Provider

2. Don’t Be Afraid to Shop Around

In some cas­es, like if you have urgent med­ical con­cerns or need to have a form filled out, you may need to see the first provider avail­able. But in gen­er­al, it’s best to do a lit­tle research before choos­ing a provider.

Some of the cri­te­ria to con­sid­er include:

• Avail­abil­i­ty, includ­ing if they have night or week­end hours or if they do telemedicine
• Loca­tion
• Insur­ance they accept
• Gen­der
• Language(s) spo­ken
• Ages they see
• How long it usu­al­ly takes to get an appointment
• Spe­cial­ty train­ing, like addi­tion­al train­ing for a spe­cif­ic disease

• If they spe­cial­ize in work­ing with peo­ple in cer­tain populations 

Many health sys­tem web­sites have ​“Find a Doc­tor” fea­tures where you can fil­ter search­es, but you can always call the office or ask your pedi­a­tri­cian for rec­om­men­da­tions, as well. 

Remem­ber that not every provider is the per­fect fit. Whether you want a sec­ond opin­ion or sim­ply don’t click with your provider, start your search up again. It may be a lit­tle extra work, but it’s best to have a provider you’re com­fort­able with and trust. 

Read on Duly Health and Care: So You Want to Make Your Own Doc­tor’s Appoint­ments 

3. Stay On Top of Your Reg­u­lar Appointments

It can be easy to for­get about your annu­al phys­i­cal when you no longer need one for school or your par­ents aren’t sched­ul­ing them for you. 

Get­ting a phys­i­cal every year is crit­i­cal if you have a chron­ic med­ical con­di­tion. Your provider can mon­i­tor how you’re doing and make sure you’re still get­ting the cor­rect treat­ment. Even if you don’t have a chron­ic con­di­tion, a year­ly phys­i­cal allows your provider to catch ear­ly signs of a con­di­tion or ill­ness. An annu­al phys­i­cal is also a good way to learn about improv­ing your over­all health and to strength­en your rela­tion­ship with your PCP. 

If you see a spe­cial­ist for a med­ical con­di­tion, it’s just as impor­tant to keep up with those appoint­ments since a con­di­tion can evolve as you get old­er and your body changes. Your spe­cial­ist might also need to see you on a reg­u­lar basis to refill pre­scrip­tions. They may want to see you more than once a year, or they might only need to see you every few years. Either way, don’t miss any appointments. 

Also read: Impor­tance of Hav­ing a Pri­ma­ry Care Provider

4. Learn the Basics of Insurance

If you’re in your ear­ly 20s and on your par­ents’ insur­ance, you may be in luck – you can stay on their plan until you turn 26. But after you turn 26, or if you’re look­ing to get your own plan, it’s nat­ur­al to feel like a fish out of water. 

Insur­ance can be a com­plex top­ic, and it can take a while to get a grasp on it. While you learn, there are some basic terms to become famil­iar with.

• Pre­mi­um: The amount paid to the insur­ance com­pa­ny per month.

• Deductible: The amount you pay for med­ical expens­es before cov­er­age kicks in.

• Copay: The fixed amount you pay for a par­tic­u­lar service.

• Coin­sur­ance: The per­cent­age of the cost you pay after meet­ing your deductible.

• Out-of-pock­et max­i­mum: The lim­it on how much you will need to pay for cov­ered health­care ser­vices in a plan year. Once you’ve reached that lim­it, insur­ance cov­ers 100% of the cost of cov­ered services. 

• For­mu­la­ry: The list of drugs that your plan covers.

There are sev­er­al types of health insur­ance plans. Some of the most com­mon are:

• PPO (pre­ferred provider orga­ni­za­tion), which offers cov­er­age in a select­ed net­work of providers. You can often get some cov­er­age for care out­side of the net­work, but you will need to pay more out of pocket. 
• HMO (health main­te­nance orga­ni­za­tion), which lim­its cov­er­age to providers with­in a spec­i­fied net­work. Except in an emer­gency, HMOs won’t cov­er any per­cent­age of out-of-net­work care. If you need to see a spe­cial­ist, you will need to get a refer­ral from your PCP, first. 
• HSA (health sav­ings account), which is a tax-exempt sav­ings account sole­ly for med­ical expens­es (includ­ing den­tal and vision). 

Read on Duly Health and Care: Pre­mi­ums, Deductibles, Out-of-Pock­et Costs, Oh My!

5. Always Be Prepared

You may be done with school, but there’s still home­work to be done. Before your appoint­ment (espe­cial­ly if it’s with a new provider), make sure to:

• Check ahead of time that they take your insur­ance. You may want to check with both the provider and your insur­ance company.
• Have a list of questions.
• Sched­ule fol­low-up appoint­ments as soon as you can.
• Bring nec­es­sary doc­u­ments for see­ing a new provider, includ­ing a pho­to ID, insur­ance card, your per­son­al and fam­i­ly med­ical his­to­ry, and any med­ical records from oth­er health systems.

You can always reach out to your health­care sys­tem or providers’ offices for help. Tak­ing charge of your own health­care might come with chal­lenges, but you’re not alone. 

Ready to sched­ule your annu­al phys­i­cal? Learn more about pri­ma­ry care at Quin­cy Med­ical Group or request an appoint­ment online. You can also call our Pri­ma­ry Care Access Line at (217) 222‑6550, ext. 3325, for assis­tance with find­ing a provider.