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And refuse to see patients with original Medicare?

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I always thought the advantage plans were for geographic areas and patients had to see providers that were within the network in their county or receive referrals etc. If a dr chooses not to see traditional Medicare covered patients I assume that is a right of the dr.
But I don't know from personal experience. I've taken my elders to drs who only accepted traditional Medicare and would not see patients who had the advantage plans. So just the opposite of your question. I'm assuming the providers have contracts to see the in network patients and simply can't handle more patients. Perhaps someone here will answer who has more info. I've always been wary of the advantage plans because I would want to choose my providers and my family members already had traditional when I got involved with their care.
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Yes they can, because they choose to stay within a "network" of providers. So let's say they are in "blue cross" network and you switch to "county health" who does not contract with your MD. This leaves you two choices: find a new doctor or pay the old one out-of-pocket. Happens all the time, medicare or non-medicare.
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Medicare Advantage is a mix of regular Medicare and private insurance. They must abide by Medicare rules so if Medicare covers something Advantage plans need to cover it as well. As Pam said, Advantage plans may limit you to a network so you should check first because if you are out of network you may have issues.

Plain Medicare plans don't have that limitation, however there are some facilities and doctors who don't accept Medicare - that is a different problem. They wouldn't accept either regular Medicare or Medicare Advantage.
Good luck finding what you need.
Carol
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My mom's facility does not accept her plan for medical purposes (they have their own doctors who don't use her plan). We take her to her own doctors for her medical problems. They only use her advantage plan to her medication,
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I am on my late husband's Medicare Advantage plan, and I am very pleased. This year my Medicare payments went up, so I dropped from the Premium Advantage plan to the standard plan, and only difference seems to be in co-pays. I don't go to doctor all that much, so this is fine. You still have to pay your Medicare fees, I think Medicare gives them to the Advantage plan. My plan is administered by the state of GA, and I even get free membership at the Y. None of the MDs I have in TN have refused to take it, even though the Medicare Advantage plan switched from United to Blue Cross and then back to United again!
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