Introduction:
Gynecology deals with conditions/diseases related to girls and women. The female anatomy majorly focused are the pelvic region, breasts and reproductive system. Obstetrics is mostly about care of pregnant women and pregnancy, which is not only about pre/post-natal care but also about the complications and the fetus monitoring programs.
Some OB/GYN health conditions are naturally considered as taboo among the female population itself. If any woman with reproductive disorders or disease is approaching a colleague or a friend about their insecurities discussing such things, they are usually talking bad behind their backs.
Similarly choosing the physicians who can effectively treat the conditions of their insecure disorder or diseases and about their pregnancy pre and post-natal services are typically a question to do extensive googling about the physician and the services they provide.
So physicians who want to make it easier for patients to choose their OB/GYN practice as a top preference, physicians need to step up their game in segmenting their level of care, treatment plans, networking with insurance companies, easier PCP referrals and usage of high tech equipment / technology.
How patient considers finding OB/GYN physicians:
First and foremost the physician needs to understand the patient’s point of view of selecting the specialty of the healthcare provider, whether it is obstetrics, gynecology or both.
The reason why we have split up these specialties is because the patient might have conditions which can be either specifically related to obstetrics, gynecology. If the patient has a condition which requires the consultation for both these specialties then there are providers who are specialized in OB/GYN and are called as OB/GYN specialists.
For example:
A gynecology physician should increase their client base of women who are not pregnant or not planning to have children. They would need to keep their women’s health in check. So they usually go with a gynecology provider.
An obstetrics physician should increase their client base of women who are planning to become pregnant or are currently pregnant. As OB/GYN doctor and specialized in both the areas of specialties they need to check whether what underlying condition the patient has before choosing them as a patient.
Patient verifies reputation of OB/GYN physicians, clinic or hospitals:
After this patient chooses an OB/GYN specialist they tend to do some background verification such as checking for reviews of the hospital, the OB/GYN physician currently performs treatment, the OB/GYN physician itself in healthcare review websites such as health grades etc. So providers should pay keen attention to the healthcare web review sites.
If the OB/GYN physician has enrolled in multiple websites they should use tools like Birdseye in order to manage multiple websites in one go, if in case the patient raises disputes or concerns in the review comments, the OB/GYN physician should be able to respond to it by using such tools.
Patients also verify the doctor’s carrier history using other verification web portals like Docinfo. These web portals show the doctor’s graduation year, the university, certifications, active state licenses and any actions issued for malpractice or any other reasons by the state or federal medical boards. So OB/GYN doctors should keep all these background verification processes in order for the patient to feel free to approach your practice without no questions or doubts of the quality of the care provided.
Network Participation:
OB/GYN provider should always keep in check of their network participation with the major insurance companies in their area. Patients contact insurance companies and obtain the right OB/GYN specialists suite to their plan benefits. This results in coverage of most of the services OB/GYN specialists provide and helps patients to understand the inner workings of the reimbursement of their plan.
In order for the patients to find out which clinic or hospitals are “in-network” they visit the insurance company’s website and typically use the option “find a network provider in your area”, by doing so the patient will benefit care in much lower cost, because going out of network will cost them during every visits, if their plan does not contain the option of out of network benefits for the OB/GYN services, the entire bill is going to be the patient responsibility and most OB/GYN clinicians hesitate to bill the patient for the entire billed amount due to the risk of the patient not going to show up for the upcoming follow up visits.
If the patient requires additional care or her baby requires special care in emergency conditions, physicians will move the patient to a neonatal intensive care unit (NICU). In-network physicians will get full reimbursement for these services and it is not worthwhile for an OB/GYN physician to be out of network especially for labor and delivery or pregnancy care.
If the patient requires additional care or her baby requires special care in emergency conditions, physicians will move the patient to a neonatal intensive care unit (NICU). In-network physicians will get full reimbursement for these services and it is not worthwhile for an OB/GYN physician to be out of network especially for labor and delivery or pregnancy care.