After a week of distress about my doctor not being a member of my new HMO, I finally discovered that he IS a member of the HMO. Problem solved. I might still use people's recommendations to look for a better doctor than the one I have (as he is adequate for my needs, but not perfect), but it's nice not to be in a desperate panic to change doctors before April 1.

Why the confusion? A lot of you know the Nielsen Haydens, who complain every so often about people who don't realize that their family name includes two words. They say that if they'd known how much hassle it would be, they'd have spelled it with a hyphen. Well, my doctor DOES spell his family name with a hyphen. Unlike 4 hospitals and 3 other health insurance companies (which may ignore some or all of the letters after the hyphen, depending on space constraints), my new HMO ignores all the letters BEFORE the hyphen. This made it hard for me to find my doctor in an alphabetical list, or in the online search function "if you are uncertain of how the doctor's name is spelled, enter the first few letters."

Whew.