Find Providers That Accept Medicare
Medicare.gov has several official websites, run by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) that show every healthcare provider that accepts Medicare in your area.
They have dedicated search portals to find and compare near by:
And all results accept Medicare as payment for services/supplies.
The rest of this guide is primarily focused on showing you how to find physicians or clinicians that accept Medicare near you, through a website called Physician Compare.
Find Doctors That Accept Medicare
Physician Compare allows you find providers that accept Medicare in your area by using a number of different search filters and helpful features.
When you first visit the Physician Compare website, the website will use your IP address to figure out your current location, and the site will show your location in the main search area automatically. This way you'll be able to get search results based on doctors and healthcare facilities that accept Medicare nearest you.
If you need to change the search to a different location, you can manually type in the location instead. For example, if you are using the site while out of town, you will want to put your home's city and state in the location search box instead.
Once you have established the location for your search, you will then use the main search bar to tell the site what you are looking for. You can search by:
- Name (type in a doctor's name)
- Specialty (type in the category of coverage needed, the specialty)
- Group (type in a healthcare facility group name)
- Body Part (type in the body part you are looking for healthcare assistance on)
- Condition (type in your condition that needs healthcare assistance)
Once you type in what you are looking for, the search bar will give you options to help narrow down your search.
For example: If you type in 'Heart' a drop down box will show you results for 'Specialties', 'Clinicians' and 'Groups' that work on heart related issues, with subpages underneath for each category to help refine your search.
You can either choose from the drop down options or just select 'Search' to see all results within your area.
Searching Providers by Specialty
You can also browse the site's directory by specialty. Look for the 'Other Ways to search' box on the main page, and choose the 'Browse by specialty from A to Z' option.
This will show an alphabetical listing of all physician or clinician specialties by field of study, and the results will be filtered based again by your location, showing you the healthcare facilities nearest you that specialize in that field.
For example: If you click on 'Anesthesiology' from the alphabetical list, you will be shown results for all Medicare Anesthesiology specialists in your area, ordered by those nearest to you.
Searching Providers by Body Part
You also have the ability to just search by body part. On the main page under 'Other Ways to search' there is a 'Search by Body Part' option.
This can simplify your search. Simply choose between a 'man', 'woman' or 'child' body style, and then select the body part you need healthcare assistance with, like - chest, arms, hands, heart, back, and so on. Once you select a body part you can further narrow the search by selecting a health topic related to that body part.
For example: You chose 'Woman' body type. Then you chose 'Chest' body part. You could then choose 'Chest pain' on the next screen. And then narrow results down even further by choosing a specialty such as: Cardiac surgery or Diagnostic radiology.
Medicare-Approved Payment Amounts
Once you see results in your area based how you searched, you can further narrow down your options by using the drop down 'Medicare-approved payment'.
This option can save you money on out-of-pocket expenses. If you use this option it will only show you doctors and facilities near you that accept what's called Medicare assignment. This means the doctor, provider or supplier agrees (or is required by law to agree) to accept whatever Medicare approves to pay as their full payment for covered services.
If the provider or doctor does not accept Medicare-approved payments that means you can be charged for more than just your Medicare deductible and copay fees; the provider can charge you above and beyond those fees.
Making Best Use of Your Search Results
Once you see your search results and decide if you want to filter results by Medicare-approved payment amounts (recommended) then it's time to find your provider.
The search result will show you a map of your location and all the providers that match your search criteria in your area and will list them by those nearest to you.
Each result will show:
- How far the provider is from you
- Type of provider it is (Physician, Clinician, Solo Practice, Group, etc)
- Their address and phone number
- Primary and additional specialties
- Performance information (a 1-5 star rating of services offered)
- If they accept Medicare-approved payments or not
You can then 'favorite' any results you like and compare them to other favorited providers to help you choose the best option for you.
**CMS collects information on all healthcare providers that accept Medicare and updates this site twice a month. If your provider is not on this site it might be because they still need to send in more information to CMS, or that your provider is new and the site has yet to update. It is also always best to contact a provider to ensure all information on this site is 100% up to date and accurate before scheduling an appointment.