Content for Primary Care and Specialty Practices

Primary care and specialty practices answer to two audiences online. Patients want to know whether they can get in, whether their plan is in network, and which clinician fits their concern. Referring offices want to know how to send a patient, what records to include, and how quickly someone will be seen. Many practice sites serve neither well.

This page carries our overview of practice content into primary and specialty care. It covers the questions both audiences bring, the federal rules that touch access and billing content, and the gaps common to multi-provider practice sites.

Questions from patients and referring offices

Patients ask whether a specific provider is taking new patients, which plans the practice is in network with, whether they need a referral, and whether a first visit can happen by telehealth. Specialty patients add a question primary care rarely gets: is this the right kind of specialist for my concern, or should I start somewhere else? The practice can answer that by describing, in each clinician's words, the concerns they evaluate.

Referring offices ask how to send a referral, which records to attach, and what happens after it arrives. A specialty practice can find these questions by asking its referral coordinator, "What do referring offices call us about that a page on our site could tell them?" Those answers are rarely written anywhere public.

A fictional four-physician endocrinology group in Georgia might find that most referral calls ask whether recent lab results need to come with the referral. A short page for referring offices, approved by the physicians and the referral coordinator, would answer that before the phone rings.

Rules that touch access and billing content

Several federal rules touch access content on primary and specialty sites. Each item below is something to raise with your compliance lead or counsel, since the details depend on your practice.

• Surprise billing. CMS says the No Surprises Act protects consumers receiving "emergency care," "non-emergency care from out-of-network providers at in-network facilities," and "air ambulance services from out-of-network providers." Specialists who see patients in hospitals or surgery centers should have billing describe how this applies to them.
• Telehealth across state lines. HHS says "The ability to deliver health care services across state lines varies based on state regulations." A telehealth page should state which states your clinicians can see patients in, as your compliance lead confirms.
• Language access. Section 1557 applies to "any health program or activity, any part of which is receiving Federal financial assistance," and its regulations require a covered entity to "take reasonable steps to provide meaningful access" for people with limited English proficiency. A page that explains how to request language help is a practical place to start.
• Board certification. The American Board of Medical Specialties offers a free lookup patients can use to check certification, and a bio can point to it.

Plan participation needs its own care. Taking a plan is not the same as taking new patients on that plan, and a site that says only "we accept" a carrier blurs the difference for every caller.

Gaps common to multi-provider practice sites

• Provider bios that never say whether that provider is accepting new patients.
• Specialty pages that list conditions but not what the clinician evaluates or when a patient should start with primary care.
• No page for referring offices: how to send, what to attach, expected timing.
• Telehealth described generally, with no word on which visits qualify or which states are covered.
• Insurance pages with no plan names and no date.

Each gap is a fact the practice already holds. The physician knows which concerns she sees, the coordinator knows what referrals need, and billing knows the network list. Collecting those answers from the people who own them is the work, and no writer should be filling them in from guesswork.