If youve recently moved to southern Delaware you might be looking forward to lots of time at the beach, hanging out at the beautiful pool and pickleball courts in your new neighborhood, or just getting to know neighbors whove likewise come to appreciate our very low taxes and vibrant collection of fine homes and condos.
If youre 55-plus youre probably also thinking a lot about your health care. Ideally, you want a good local primary care physician, the opportunity for all necessary preventive care, and access to specialists well-qualified to protect your knees and hips, eyesight and everything else you need to stay active and healthy.
For these reasons and more Im going to do a few blog posts on Delawares healthcare options, beginning in Sussex County. Todays post is in response to the question we get most often from new and potential home buyers:
How difficult is it to find good doctors?
Ill answer this one with a caveat. From my experience and the experiences of fellow agents, neighbors and Sussex County friends, there are lots of fine physicians, nurse practitioners and other medical professionals in the area. People tell us good things in particular about the ER teams at Beebe Healthcare, and about the highly qualified doctors who take care of them on an ongoing basis.
In fact, a search of feedback from locals whove taken the time to write about their experiences turned up more than 200 letters to the Cape Gazette during the last few years.
What we also hear though is it can take a bit of time to find and schedule a visit with a primary care provider. A recent social media inquiry drew more than a dozen responses and the consensus is that it might take two, four or even six months to get your first appointment with an internal medicine specialist in Sussex County.
So yes, you probably will get good healthcare, and you probably can find good doctors, but its best to start your search as soon as you move here, if not before.
There are a couple of options for doing so. One is to go to the Beebe web site and search for a doctor by specialty. The good news is that thanks to Beebes significant expansion over the past decade you can find both primary care physicians and just about any type of specialist you need.
Greater investments can bring a higher level of care
Another increasingly popular option is to find a doctor tied to whats become known as Concierge Care. If that calls to mind a kind and solicitous individual at a desk in a fancy hotel lobby who offers you special advice and opportunities, youve got an accurate idea of what its about.
People who join up through the MDVIP organization pay a yearly membership which in Delaware averages around $1,800 that ensures youget more preventive care, including advanced screenings and diagnostic test and probably more personal support for managing chronic health conditions. What may be especially important to many is the likelihood that you can get appointments with your MDVIP doctor on a days notice. You may also be able to get more extensive health screenings for preventive care that might not normally be covered by Medicare.
This appears to be a pretty good deal for folks our age, with research showing MDVIP- affiliated healthcare teams have been shown to decrease ER visits and hospitalizations, perhaps because the more personalized care helps patients identify health conditions before they become problematic.
Ill continue to learn and write about this topic over the next few months because its so important to everything we care about at our company. Ill also continue spotlighting all of the other crucial aspects to a healthy life, including being physically active, regardless of your age, and enjoying all of the fresh local produce and other great foods available close to home.