Regular medical check up?

There is a thing that insurance pays for, at least mine does. I forget what it's called. Something like a wellness visit. It's pretty much like an annual physical. I can't tell the difference. It's not required, and I don't bother with it or a general physical anymore, because every time something serious or even life threatening has sent me to the emergency room, it was something never detected by a general exam. Not to say a general exam never picks anything up. It just hasn't for me. I may be playing too fast and loose with this. Who knows?
 
We get regular check ups every 6 months. Full blood panel & urine samples to assure the meds we need are working as they should. This has been the routine since we became eligible for Medicare with zero cost to us for tests & office visits. I think it has worked well to our benefit since I'm 84 my wife is 80 & both with good results from what we need in the way of meds.

The times we needed hospital care or emergency room visits there is no way those instances could have been detected with a routine visit. And there was no cost for hospital care except for a minimal copay for emergency room visit.

I forgot to add that we have an online med supplier that has auto refill. That service means we never have to call to get refills. The service calls the prescriber gets a refill request then sends us what we need
 

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In order to continue refilling my prescriptions, my primary care doctor requires bloodwork and a consultation every 6 months. Some prescription drugs can affect organ function such as kidneys and liver, or cause changes in blood cell counts. The annual Medicare wellness exam is included in one of my two yearly visits. My advantage plan pays for all of this.
 
Full check up and blood work including some odd ones such as lead not covered but PCP waives the charge. No charge at all.
My monthly B12 shot - no charge.
Waiting times are around five minutes. Staff is very professional. No appointment push in gets done if necessary.
SO's cardiologist is in the same group and comes to the location an aftrnoon or so per week. Saves SO 45 minutes one way. Scheduling gets handled by PCP's nurse according to SO's schedule.
All specialty referrrals and diagnostics get handled within 24 hours and when requested and availability given so do appointments. Follow up on specialty visits aside from what is on the patient portal.
For minor things such as the ccommon cold - medication is ready at the pharmacy by end of business day.
PCP went out of her way to research a medication I read about in a German Magazine (not an add). She got the Medicare approval. She also goes to bat with Medicare on all approvals, keeps us posted and has helped out with samples when things dragged out.
Nothing has changed since me switched to Medicare as far as level of service and charges is concerned. Yes, I bring Merci chocolates several times a year for the four departments and fresh herbs for my PCP and nurse when I have some.
All I need is a nose spray for sinus/allergies but SO is still in the recovery window for heart and spine.
 
I have bloodwork and a routine appointment with my PCP twice a year at no cost to me through Medicare and my zero premium Medicare Advantage Plan.

The visits are very basic conversations and can hardly be considered an old fashioned medical exam.

Any thing beyond that is handled with more advanced testing and a referral to a specialist of some sort.

So far it has been more than sufficient.
 
Marcy Sheiner said:
Medicare sends me annual notices to get a "wellness" checkup. I do, but it's so brief I feel like not much is really checked. I do however get blood tests annually.
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Hmm, well mine don't seem that cursory. But then I have other things already going on too. So I get referrals to specialists in them some of the time as well. My Medicare Advantage plan keeps tabs on those too, and sometimes calls with health surveys and provides lists of things to ask the doctor about.
 
debodun said:
A wellness check isn't to discuss any health problems. With my doctor I have to make a regular appointment to do that. All that happens at my WC is weight, blood pressure, listen to breathing and heart and obtain a list of other doctors I'm seeing.
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Yeah, that's pretty much all mine amounts to.
 
KP Senior Advantage has an annual "Wellness Visit" one can optionally take advantage of. Not at all like a real thorough physical exam. Because I get the annual stool cancer screening kit and have blood tests every couple months for my polycythemia vera condition, my primary care provider doctor would notice anything unusual.
 
David777 said:
KP Senior Advantage has an annual "Wellness Visit" one can optionally take advantage of. Not at all like a real thorough physical exam. Because I get the annual stool cancer screening kit and have blood tests every couple months for my polycythemia vera condition, my primary care provider doctor would notice anything unusual.
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David is correct! A "Wellness Visit" is not a physical exam.

The below is a re-post of the one I made on Nov. 2 , 2022. > How does a Medicare Wellness Visit compare to an Annual Physical

This is what took place at my "wellness visit" this week. Whoever she was, nurse/assistant, weighed me, took my blood pressure, and asked some questions.

"What year is it?"

"What month is it?"

"Spell "table" backwards."

"I'm going to give you three words to remember, and I'm going to ask you what they are later."

She handed me a piece of paper with a drawing of tilted intersecting hexagons and asked me to copy the drawing.

Then she asked me what the three words were.

Then I asked her at what age they start asking these questions. She looked at me and really didn't know. I said, "Sixty five?" She said, "Yes."

When we were finished, I told her to tell my doctor that I wasn't taking this "test" again.

She then gave me a yes/no and multiple choice questionnaire to fill out that asked about exercise, if I'd fallen or had concerns about falling, if I was depressed, etc.

When my doctor came in, she said that she was told that I didn't want to take the "test" again and to just remind them of that at the next "wellness visit".

I said I was glad that she didn't ask me to count backwards by sevens because I couldn't do it when I was forty, twenty, or ten years old. My doctor has a sense of humor. That's one of the reasons I like her. The other reasons are that she plays ball, listens, and doesn't dismiss my concerns. If I want a certain test, she doesn't argue with me, she orders it.

The doctor asked me about any meds I was taking and asked about supplements I was taking. We discussed some test results. She asked me about getting a flu shot, getting a mammogram, and taking a fecal occult blood test. She asked about my vision and if there were any changes. She asked if I got headaches. She asked me if I coughed. She asked if there were any medications she needed to order for me.

Furthermore, she asked me if I had any concerns or if there was anything else I needed to talk about. Then she checked my ears, listened to my lungs, and checked my breasts. (Previous visits, she also checked my mouth and nose, she didn't do that this time.) I think she was having a slow afternoon because she was relaxed, unhurried, and took her time. I was with her for a good thirty minutes.

And that was my "wellness visit". Evidently, I'm going to live.
 
That sounds more like a diagnostic test for Alzheimer's.

"What year is it?" An arbitrary measurement which means nothing.

"What month is it?" Somewhere between January and December.

"Spell "table" backwards." T-A-B-L-E ... B-A-C-K-W-A-R-D-S

Then she asked me what the three words were. I have three words for you!
 
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Regular check up every 6 months. Full blood panel as well as urine sample twice a year. Our GP is very thorough and we feel good about his practice. Cost is fully covered by Medicare and United Healthcare.
 
I just received an email from Kaiser telling me that it's time for a visit with my PCP. Its been six months since my last visit with her so that indicates Kaiser is tracking my general health needs even hough I've been focused on my cancer docs.
 
debodun said:
A wellness check isn't to discuss any health problems. With my doctor I have to make a regular appointment to do that. All that happens at my WC is weight, blood pressure, listen to breathing and heart and obtain a list of other doctors I'm seeing.
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I recognize that not all practitioners have the same way of doing things, but just to say, my doctor incorporates the Medicare wellness check into the first of my two yearly visits, and we go over blood work and any health concerns. The wellness check takes such a short amount of time, it seems unnecessary for a doctor to require a separate appointment just for that.
 
MACKTEXAS said:
I recognize that not all practitioners have the same way of doing things, but just to say, my doctor incorporates the Medicare wellness check into the first of my two yearly visits, and we go over blood work and any health concerns. The wellness check takes such a short amount of time, it seems unnecessary for a doctor to require a separate appointment just for that.
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My PCP is fine with discussing anything that is of concern to me in my semi annual visits.

I find it odd that a separate appointment would be necessary.
 
From other posts here, my wellness check is pretty much the same. Didn't realize it's not a regular physical. I too get referrals when needed. Which I hate--I hate going to any docs at all. So I won't be asking for a full physical any time soon.
 
Yep, the wellness check, where I get checked for any memory issues, flexibility, as well as blood tests, urine sample, listening to my hears, lungs, checking my ears, etc. Usually, I am asked about how I am feeling. If I tell him that something is a problem, or if any of the tests/samples come back out of range... I get prescribed something or sent to a specialist or to any number of hospital related tests, such as x-rays, eeg, ecg, mri, ct scan, and some other letters of the alphabet... and then get prescribed something, or undergo some procedure.

I have yet to be told I am getting younger or healthier.
 
A far better way to approach annual wellness checks is NOT to just arrive for an appointment and just let a doctor ask his questions but rather over months collects questions one can tersely list and then message a doctor with say a week before your appointment so they can better understand what might need to be discussed and then discovering topics one brings up to them they have not spent time reviewing in preparation.

Medical science is vastly more complex in this era that one cannot expect doctors to know answers or questions for day to day. My own terrific KP doctors greatly appreciate my doing so though some doctors may be intimidated. Doctors are often quite busy and do not have time to slowly draw information out of their patients. If not provided with directions to pursue, they may spend most of your limited appointment period talking about subjects one is barely concerned with and when one say recalls at the end how they have been feeling deep pains in ones lower back, may not get much effective feedback.
 
In Australia we just lay on the beaches most of the time and these blonde life savers [male and female] come around regularly and check our pulses - if they are racing we race after them?
 
I have an annual physical with my doctor and a low-dose CT scan annually because I smoked in the past. It is much easier to fight chronic or terminal diseases if they are diagnosed early. Medicare pays for it, so why not?

That said, my father had chronically high PSA which can lead to prostate cancer and went to Johns Hopkins every 6 months to have it monitored. Even after all that, he passed away from a twisted bowel that was never diagnosed. He became ill the day before Thanksgiving. We took him to the emergency room. It was never detected. We couldn't take him back to a doctor until the Monday after Thanksgiving and he passed away on the Sunday. It is a horribly painful way to die. That was 25 years ago, so hopefully detection has gotten better.
 
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Knight said:
We get regular check ups every 6 months. Full blood panel & urine samples to assure the meds we need are working as they should. This has been the routine since we became eligible for Medicare with zero cost to us for tests & office visits. I think it has worked well to our benefit since I'm 84 my wife is 80 & both with good results from what we need in the way of meds.

The times we needed hospital care or emergency room visits there is no way those instances could have been detected with a routine visit. And there was no cost for hospital care except for a minimal copay for emergency room visit.

I forgot to add that we have an online med supplier that has auto refill. That service means we never have to call to get refills. The service calls the prescriber gets a refill request then sends us what we need
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Sounds brilliant. Where are you living?
 
Harry Le Hermit said:
Yep, the wellness check, where I get checked for any memory issues, flexibility, as well as blood tests, urine sample, listening to my hears, lungs, checking my ears, etc. Usually, I am asked about how I am feeling. If I tell him that something is a problem, or if any of the tests/samples come back out of range... I get prescribed something or sent to a specialist or to any number of hospital related tests, such as x-rays, eeg, ecg, mri, ct scan, and some other letters of the alphabet... and then get prescribed something, or undergo some procedure.

I have yet to be told I am getting younger or healthier.
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What's we're concerned with is getting older and weaker. Going in your direction will probably need a miracle, šŸ¤£šŸ˜‚šŸ¤£šŸ˜‚
 

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