If you don’t have a good primary care doctor or are generally looking to trade money for health, and live in the Bay Area, Phoenix, Boston, NY, Chicago, or Washington DC, I’d recommend considering signing up for One Medical Group, which is a service that provides members with access to a network of competent primary doctors, as well as providing other benefits. They do charge patients a $150 yearly membership fee in additional to charging co-pays similar to what you’d pay at any other primary care physician’s office, but in return for this, they hire more competent doctors, employ a large support staff that can nudge you to take care of outstanding health concerns, and are generally good at talking you into taking preventative measures to safeguard your health.
(My only incentive for posting this is that I want LessWrongers to be healthy. My reasoning is roughly that if you’re willing to spend money on cryonics, then you’d probably be willing to spend money on quality preventative healthcare, too).
Added: I benefited quite a bit from signing up with them for the specific reason that the fact that so many of their doctors and staff are so kind nudged me to be less afraid of going to the doctor. This made it easier for me to take preventative steps toward being healthier in general.
I’m a One Medical member. The single biggest draw for me is that you can get appointments the same or next day with little or no waiting time—where my old primary care doctor was usually booked solid for two weeks or more, by which point I’d either have naturally gotten over whatever I wanted to see him for, or have been driven to an expensive urgent care clinic full of other sick people.
They don’t bother with the traditional kabuki dance where a nurse ushers you in and takes your vitals and then you wait around for fifteen minutes before the actual doctor shows, either—you see a doctor immediately about whatever you came in for, and you’re usually in and out in twenty minutes. It’s so much better of a workflow that I’m astonished it hasn’t been more widely adopted.
That said, they don’t play particularly nice with my current insurance, so do your homework.
If you don’t have a good primary care doctor or are generally looking to trade money for health, and live in the Bay Area, Phoenix, Boston, NY, Chicago, or Washington DC, I’d recommend considering signing up for One Medical Group, which is a service that provides members with access to a network of competent primary doctors, as well as providing other benefits. They do charge patients a $150 yearly membership fee in additional to charging co-pays similar to what you’d pay at any other primary care physician’s office, but in return for this, they hire more competent doctors, employ a large support staff that can nudge you to take care of outstanding health concerns, and are generally good at talking you into taking preventative measures to safeguard your health.
(My only incentive for posting this is that I want LessWrongers to be healthy. My reasoning is roughly that if you’re willing to spend money on cryonics, then you’d probably be willing to spend money on quality preventative healthcare, too).
Added: I benefited quite a bit from signing up with them for the specific reason that the fact that so many of their doctors and staff are so kind nudged me to be less afraid of going to the doctor. This made it easier for me to take preventative steps toward being healthier in general.
I’m a One Medical member. The single biggest draw for me is that you can get appointments the same or next day with little or no waiting time—where my old primary care doctor was usually booked solid for two weeks or more, by which point I’d either have naturally gotten over whatever I wanted to see him for, or have been driven to an expensive urgent care clinic full of other sick people.
They don’t bother with the traditional kabuki dance where a nurse ushers you in and takes your vitals and then you wait around for fifteen minutes before the actual doctor shows, either—you see a doctor immediately about whatever you came in for, and you’re usually in and out in twenty minutes. It’s so much better of a workflow that I’m astonished it hasn’t been more widely adopted.
That said, they don’t play particularly nice with my current insurance, so do your homework.
Be careful. They charge a lot more for services, due to how they bill.