Beginning in 2011, Medicare began covering the Annual Wellness Visit (AWV) as a yearly appointment with a primary care provider (PCP) to create or update a personalized prevention plan at no cost to the beneficiary. This plan may help prevent illness based on current health and risk factors. It is not a routine physical but can be performed alongside one.
Learn from Blue & Co.’s annual wellness visit expert, Brandon Bond, as he explains what AWVs are in the video below.
An Annual Wellness Visit is:
- A Health Risk Assessment Survey
- Cognitive Function Screening
- Measuring Biometrics
- Prevention Services
- Creating a Plan of Care
An Underutilized Opportunity for Patient Safety
Based on available benchmarking data, providers underutilize Medicare AWVs as a tool to check in on their patients. Providers are completing only about 7% of AWVs on eligible patients. With the AWV fully covered by Medicare, the opportunity for providers to increase their revenue by completing more of these visits is significant.
Contact Blue about Annual Wellness Visits
At Blue & Co., we encourage healthcare organizations to promote Medicare annual wellness visits, as they promote patient health, can lead to disease detection, and are offered at no cost to the patient. If you would like to learn more about implementing Medicare annual wellness visits at your practice, please reach out to your local Blue & Co. advisor, or one of our AWV experts Brandon Bond or John Wortley.
Brandon Bond, Senior Consultant
317-275-7427
John Wortley, Senior Manager
502-992-2563
