Do I Need A Medicare Annual Wellness Visit?

If you’re on Medicare and have Part B, you probably haven’t taken advantage of an important free service Grady offers: the Medicare Annual Wellness Visit.

Medicare’s Annual Wellness Visit is a time to meet with your primary care doctor, talk about how you’re doing physically and emotionally, discuss screenings, vaccinations, blood tests, and other diagnostic exams, and plan how best to monitor your health.

This visit is more valuable than annual physicals because it gives you and your doctor a chance to discuss how you’re feeling and what’s important to you, not just specific aches or illnesses.

Then, you and your provider create a written screening schedule or checklist for you to follow.

It’s Covered By Medicare!

One of the few Medicare services that requires no co-pay, the annual visit is an opportunity to get your doctor’s undivided attention for a conversation about your health. Yet, just 1 in 5 Medicare beneficiaries does it.

You pay nothing for a Medicare Annual Wellness Visit at Grady, and there’s no Part B deductible. Medicare Part B covers the cost of your Medicare Annual Wellness Visit if:

• You have had Part B for longer than 12 months.
• And you have not received an AWV in the past 12 months.

What’s an Annual Wellness Visit?

The Wellness Visit is not an annual physical exam. During these visits, you meet with your primary care doctor and talk about how you’re doing physically and emotionally, discuss screenings, vaccinations, blood tests, and other diagnostic exams, and plan the best way to monitor your health needs.

Wellness Visit is more valuable than annual physicals because they give both you and your doctor a chance to talk about overall conditions – and not just specific aches or illnesses – and discuss plans for staying as healthy as possible.

During a Wellness Visit, doctors ask some basic questions to determine whether you may need specific medical screenings and tests, or if there are any warning signs to watch for.  The questions may include:

• Have you noticed any changes in your memory, vision, or hearing?
• Are you up to date on your immunizations and screenings?
• Is your home safe from the risk of falls?
• How is your emotional health — are you depressed or lonely?
• Do you prepare your own meals?
• Do you need help with bathing?
• Are you eating healthy and exercising?
• Who lives at home with you?
• What are your advance health care wishes?

When you go to a Wellness Visit, make sure you have a list of any medications you take and the names of other doctors you’re seeing. Plus, write down a list of anything that is bothering you, including any changes you’ve noticed in your health over the past year.

Since people understand their own physical and emotional conditions, the Wellness Visit provides a chance to share with a doctor the kinds of health insights that you might otherwise keep to yourself.

After the conversation, you and your physician create a written checklist for you to follow. Many of the items on your plan can be scheduled before you leave the office.

Get the Care You Need

Ready to take the next step for a healthier life? Grady can help.  If you need a primary care physician, call us at (404) 616-1000. We’ll arrange an appointment at a Primary Care Center near you. Doctors there can treat most conditions and provide access to Grady’s unparalleled medical specialty expertise.