MD and specialists for young adult near Martinez
I have to choose a new health plan and it’s very stressful. My son has been at Children’s Hospital Oakland for his complex medical care since he was born. He now is aging out at age 21 (I think anyway 😳😫) and I need to pick a new health plan which includes obviously a primary care and his many multiple specialist. I first really wanted to stay with Ucsf, and use Berkeley Outpatient on San Pablo, but I live in Martinez area annd I’m finding there aren’t very many specialists. Do people have suggestions? So other plans available to me include John Muir network. This is so harrowing. For the past two decades all of his doctors could speak to each other and see each other‘s records and refer to each other for questions about my son, etc. sorry to go on and on but this is a huge decision. My son has 12 regular specialists, but primary care and endocrinology and cardiology are my biggest concern. Thank you in advance for anybody that can help me🤗🤟
Parent Replies
I have Anthem/John Muir HMO and use Berkeley Outpatient. My kid sees an endocrinologist through Children's/UCSF and is in the John Muir group. so no guarantee but John Muir might also contract with the doctors you want to use. I'm so sorry for this headache. Isn't our medical system ridiculous???
If by "aging out" you mean aging out of coverage by your insurance plan, under federal law -- the Affordable Care Act (thank you President Obama!), he has to be covered until age 26.
My understanding is that your adult child can remain on your insurance plann until they are 26 years of age, but you'll want to check with your provider to confirm. At least this would buy you additional time to work all this out. Good luck!
I’m so sorry, this sound really stressful. If I were making this decision, I would look at a plan/medical group that would allow me to access UCSF or Stanford doctors for my child’s care. I’ve had multiple family members with complicated medical needs and Stanford especially has given us access to amazing specialists (and they communicate with one another). I personally have had great experiences with UCSF—I go into SF for some specialists and see some at the outpatient center you mentioned in Berkeley.