Retirees and Specialty Care

If you are receiving care in any of the specialty departments at the Yale Health Center, when you retire you need to cancel upcoming appointments that are scheduled after your effective date as a Medicare patient. The staff in the specialty department will be able to provide you with the contact information necessary to continue with the same doctor at one of their outside offices. If your doctor does not have an outside practice, they can assist you with transitioning to another doctor outside of Yale Health.

If you are referred to a specialist once you are a Medicare Patient, it will be to an outside location. Your provider will provide guidance on who you should see but since you are on Medicare you are no longer required to see doctors who are part of the Yale Health network. To ensure your safety, always keep your primary care provider in the loop when seeing doctors outside of the Yale Health network.

Referrals

You may be issued a referral by a clinician at Yale Health, since you are on Medicare those services are not covered by Yale Health. You should advise the outside doctors when scheduling and while at their offices that Medicare is you primary insurance and provide you Medicare Card and Supplemental Insurance card. They should remove Yale Health from your insurance in their files.