Medicare covers a yearly wellness visit that many people never use, or confuse with a physical exam. It is a chance to sit down with your doctor or another health professional, look at your overall health and make a plan to stay as well as possible over the coming year.
Two kinds of visits
- "Welcome to Medicare" preventive visit: a one-time visit available in your first 12 months of Part B.
- Yearly wellness visit: once every 12 months after you have had Part B for more than 12 months.
Both are covered at no cost to you, with no deductible or coinsurance, if your provider accepts assignment.
What happens at a yearly wellness visit
Your provider will usually:
- Ask you to fill out a health risk assessment about your health, habits and daily activities.
- Review your medical and family history.
- Update a list of your current providers and prescriptions.
- Measure your height, weight and blood pressure.
- Check for signs of memory or thinking changes.
- Review your risk for depression and your safety at home, including fall risk.
- Create or update a written schedule of the screenings and vaccines you need over the next five to 10 years.
- Offer to talk about advance care planning, if you wish.
Your provider may also ask about things that affect health, such as access to food, housing or transportation.
What it is not
The wellness visit is not a full physical exam. Medicare does not cover routine physicals. If you raise a new problem or your doctor examines a specific complaint, such as joint pain, or orders tests, that part of the visit may be billed separately, and your deductible and 20% coinsurance may apply.
How to prepare
Bring:
- A list of every medicine you take, including vitamins, supplements and over-the-counter drugs, with doses. Or bring the bottles.
- Names and contact details of your other doctors and specialists.
- Your family health history, as best you know it.
- Your recent screening and vaccine records.
- A short list of questions, with the most important first.
- Your glasses and hearing aids, if you use them.
It can help to bring a trusted family member or friend to take notes. Our guide to managing medications safely includes a simple way to keep a medicine list.
Questions you might ask
- Which screenings are due for me this year?
- Are any of my medicines no longer needed, or likely to interact?
- What can I do to lower my risk of falling?
- What kind of exercise is safe for me?
- Should I be concerned about any memory changes I have noticed?
After the visit
Ask for a copy of your personalized prevention plan and put screening dates on your calendar. If you are in a Medicare Advantage plan, the wellness visit is also covered; check with your plan about which providers to use.
