Interesting. My experience is that our insurance plan (I assume I'm on the same plan as you) can *effectively* have PCPs for purposes of referrals. I don't know how they write it down in the computers, but msmemory and I have an MD who we have considered our PCP for many years now, and we've never had a problem with getting and using referrals from her.
It may make things easier that we have a physician in this position -- even if we're not technically doing referrals from an official PCP, it basically looks the same to the specialists, so they don't argue about it. They have a name to put into their computers, so the bureaucracies are all content. (Honestly, it had never occurred to me that this plan *doesn't* have PCPs -- I've always treated ours as one, and neither the doctors nor the insurance company have ever corrected me...)
no subject
It may make things easier that we have a physician in this position -- even if we're not technically doing referrals from an official PCP, it basically looks the same to the specialists, so they don't argue about it. They have a name to put into their computers, so the bureaucracies are all content. (Honestly, it had never occurred to me that this plan *doesn't* have PCPs -- I've always treated ours as one, and neither the doctors nor the insurance company have ever corrected me...)