Alternative to TV Health for Primary Care?
 

What are the primary care alternatives to the The Villages Health? Is UF Health in The Villages? What about USF? Any suggestions for a good primary care clinic/university/doctor's group near The Villages?:MOJE_whot:

My wife has been patient of Lakeview Internal Medicine...been very happy with her Primary Doc Page Smith...they have office in The Villages also

I would advise anyone looking outside TV Health to stick with a group practice of at least 4, a preferably 6 primary care docs. An affiliation with some other entity is a plus as well. Larger groups have the advantage of participating in quality assurance programs, tend to adhere to CME requirements, and participate in the medical community. There is always someone around to ask for advice or a quick second opinion. Solo practitioners can be excellent, but some are isolated, fall behind current information, and tend to make decisions on their own with no back up. Then there are those that are alone because no other MD wants to be associated with them. Be smart and thoroughly research your choice and get personal recommendations.

Great advice!

If you are talking about one of the "Clinics" I concur - but that won't happen here. And, IMO, a large group doesn't really equate to quality. I do my research and pick a PCP based on my criteria. I have had very good docs over the years, and am fortunate to have one here - a solo practitioner. I have worked with docs for 40+ years and seldom have made a selection error.

Premier Medical is very good. Do a lot of things inhouse and also have an urgent care

Have seen two different primary doctors with them and Drs left after a short time.

Unfortunately, neither UF Health or USF Health have primary practices in The Villages (and the experiment with USF specialists failed).

As an alternative, I think GE's advice below is wise:

Beware of Premier Medical
 

We were with Premier Medical for almost 5 years when we first came to The Villages. The doctors are GREAT!!! HOWEVER, the administrating and billing departments are a nightmare. Every year I had to print out all the EOB statements from the insurance company, try to cross reference it with the billing codes and statements generated by Premier Medical, and spend a large amount of hours trying to prove to Premier Medical that our bills have been satisfied.

Finally, we left Premier Medical. Afterwards my wife had an incident and we had to call 911, get the ambulance, go to the hospital, etc... My wife is fine now, Thank You, BUT Premier Medical's doctor stopped in AFTER my wife was released, on her way out the door to the car to go home, and Premier Medical was saying, "WE CAN SCHEDULE A FOLLOW UP"... my wife said "No thank you, we'll take care of it ourselves".

Guess What, Premier Medical submitted a bill to the insurance company, of course that incident put us in the donut hole, and when I called Premier Medical's billing department stating that they submitted a charge that was not called for, the billing department stated that the doctor did offer a follow up visit. So is that worth a $230 charge????

Premier Medical, you can trust the doctors... they are great, but administration doesn't care what they do, just keep the cash flow coming.

I tried Premier a few years ago
 

Made an appt for a physical, got charged for both a new patient visit AND a physical to the tune of about $500-600, plus a charge for the EKG - for about a 10 minute appt. and also an EKG (which I hadn't asked for and wasn't indicated other than I was now 60 - I guess that was the trigger).

Had to fight the bill. Finally got the doctor to say something to the billing dept. so that I was only charged for the physical. Then came back for something a year later and the charge reappeared - I had to remind them that this had been changed.

Also had to come back for a 2nd appt. for the blood work results - they wouldn't schedule the bloodwork first (was told that's not how we do it here) so the doctor could review it at the appt. And - everything was fine, no real need to have the appt to discuss, just told me I was within the normal ranges for everything!

The Dr. left the practice a couple of years later.

Love to know what CPT code they used to try to justify THAT. If I did, maybe I'd have a PREMIER home---perhaps that's how they named their practice

Andrew Conti, MD - most efficient office you'll ever be in!

Dr. Agbo

Dr. Agbo
Dr. James Brown in Belleview
Doctors at Lakeview internal medicine - Dr. Sal, Dr. Bisht, they have a large team of excellent physicians.