Medicare patients: the clock is ticking on your free wellness visit

Preventative medicine was a guiding principle behind the new federal health reform law, but one provision aimed at that -- free annual "wellness visits" for seniors -- remains a largely unused benefit, federal data show. As of last month, only 1.2 million of the 31 million eligible Medicare beneficiaries nationally had gone in for wellness visits since the benefit went into effect in January. Health care providers say they believe few Medicare patients even know about the program. One reason may be that doctors and clinics aren't telling them. Physicians are largely divided on the merits of the consultations. While some see them as potentially life-saving, others consider the new government mandate a billing headache .In some cases, patients keen to get the checkups are getting stuck with large out-of-pocket bills after demanding physical examinations, which are not included with the benefit. Wellness visits are annual talks with physicians to go over medical history and discuss ways of staying healthy. Medicare pays health providers roughly for the visits, and the patients pay nothing. But the time needed to do the assessments makes it a money loser for some doctor's offices. Wellness visits include a basic check of patients' weight and blood pressure, updates of family medical histories, an assessment of cognitive abilities and a discussion of healthy living practices.

Steve - many of our clients have used their "Wellness Visit" to meet with Bonnie this year. They get a prescription from their physician with "Wellness Visit" written on it. We give the client a receipt with "wellness visit" printed. Then the client submits the claim to Medicare for reimbursement.