Primary Care Physician
 

Recently moved to The Villages and in search of a new primary care doctor for my husband. However, hubby is not on Medicare and is under age 60, so The Villages Health system is not an option. Asking for recommendations for a good doctor (male or female) in the local or surrounding areas. Thank you kindly.

Typically, The Villages Health (PCP) will take you as a patient if they accept your insurance and you are below Medicare age. The problem for many people is if they are of Medicare age and don’t enroll in one of the accepted Medicare Advantage Plans. I used them for several years with employer health insurance and obamacare insurance when I was below 65. Did they specifically say they won’t accept whatever insurance your spouse is currently using?

The Villages Health told us they are not accepting new patients under age 60 and since my husband is 59 he needs to find a doctor elsewhere. He has Florida Blue through the Marketplace (Obamacare) but insurance is not the issue, it's age. Perhaps this is a new guideline with TVH?

I was going to suggest the same thing, and just make plans ahead of time if you plan on using traditional Medicare. An alternative would be to use one of the urgent care facilities, some of these are setup for regular patients.
There are several doctors in the area with many inside the villages, ours is in Leesburg about a 25 minute drive from the Brownwood area. If that is not too far let me know and i will share contact info.

Start here, I preferred one who had at least 5yrs in one location.

Best Primary Care Physicians in Leesburg, FL - Family Medicine Doctors | Healthgrades

Best Primary Care Physicians in The Villages, FL - Family Medicine Doctors | Healthgrades

Here is a list I maintain as best as I can.

We like ours but she is not taking new patients.

One piece of advise pick a doc who is younger than yourselves to hopefully not have him/her retire on you

That’s weird. I also tried to make an appointment there and they told me they didn’t take patients under, I believe it was 60. Maybe 65. Regardless, they wouldn’t take me as a patient and nothing about insurance was even discussed.

The Villages Health accepts most PPO plans (preferred provider). I have Blue Cross, and now that I'm in Florida I have Florida Blue. I moved here when I was 59, and Dr. Ashok Ojha at TVH has been my PCP ever since.

It's possible they're not accepting NEW patients unless they're with a Medicare Advantage plan, but you'd have to ask them for specifics.

IMO if on MC you have to have MC advantage plan to be seen by MD in village health if had insurance change to MC at 65. You can seen specialist but IMO as villages doubles in size that will be out also due to amount of patients their getting kickbacks from with exclusive MC Advantage for them, not us :shrug:.
Even St Luke’s patient size had doubled and appointments are hard to get and office over booked what I experience. Dermatologist even harder due all us old people around here with skin problems. IMO ACA just made it worse, if you have insurance you should be able go any health care facility. ACA should have fixed that. But they had to pass it to see what’s in it.:read: Too bad they didn’t read it.

Primary Care
 

Pleased with Suncoast Primary Care. On 44 east of Brownwood.