What is a PCP? And why is it important to find one?

Your Primary Care Physician, or PCP, is your primary health care provider. It’s really important you find a good PCP, because:

1. PCPs can develop a comfort level with your health history–a PCP can develop an understanding of your health needs and proper treatment over years of care.
2. PCPs can catch things early–by having a full understanding of your health history, a PCP can often identify medical issues early when you are still in a good position to treat them
3. They can refer you to specialists–through many health insurance plans, you can only see a specialist with a referral from your PCP. In fact, many plans require you to have a referral from a PCP in order to see a specialist. Even if you are on a plan that does allow you to go straight to a specialist, it helps to have a PCP who can send you to the right specialists!

So, yeah…you’ll want to find a PCP you have a strong comfort level with.

Check out our resources to find a list of common specialists and what they do! And join us in the next lesson as we answer this scary question: What is health insurance?

Source(s): One Medical