What is an Annual Wellness Visit (AWV)?
Annual wellness visit is a yearly appointment with your primary care provider to create or update a personalized prevention plan. This plan may help prevent illness based on your current health and risk factors. Keep in mind that the AWV is not a head-to-toe physical examination.
“An annual wellness visit for Medicare is a preventative care visit that is free of cost to the patients. It is a face-to-face discussion of your current and past medical history resulting in creation of your personalized preventive care plan.
As your primary care physician, I highly recommend that you keep your annual wellness visit. It will help determine what health issues may arise in the future and how to prevent them. To achieve this, we need to work together and take all steps necessary to get there!” — Dr. Jay Shaktawat
What to expect during an Annual Wellness Visit?
- Develop your personalized prevention plan
- Check your height, weight, blood pressure, and other routine measurements
- Give you a health risk assessment
- Review your functional ability and level of safety
- Learn about your medical and family history
- Make a list of your current providers, durable medical equipment (DME) suppliers, and medications
- Create a written 5 to 10-year screening schedule or check-list
- Screen for cognitive impairment, including diseases such as Alzheimer’s and other forms of dementia
- Screen for depression
- Provide health advice and referrals to health education and/or preventive counseling services aimed at reducing identified risk factors and promoting wellness
What is the cost to me, as a patient?
Medicare (and Medicare Advantage plans) covers Annual Wellness Visit at 100%. This means you pay nothing (no deductibles, co-payments, or coinsurances).
