I've never been one to go to doctors, I thought of myself as healthy. In 2019 at 75 I decided to get cataract surgery and a heart murmur was found. I knew I had that and it didn't really bother me but I had to get it diagnosed and see a cardiologist. This started me in with a clinic and a yearly wellness checkup.

This year at the checkup the PA was alarmed at what my heart sounded like. He immediately made a cardiologist appointment for me. I went this AM and it wasn't a good diagnosis. High risk of stroke and immediate meds. So, the wellness checkup did find something and it was in my best interest to address it. What if I didn't do the exam? Would I have just continued along, dumb and happy until I had a stroke?

Medicare Wellness visits are annual and fully paid for by Medicare. It's not an annual physical check up because Medicare will only pay to diagnose or treat a condition. But it's a good proxy. Good doctors understand what it's for and go up to the line and then if they see something off, they can treat it as well.

I don't see it as an invasion of privacy. They have all your information anyways when you sign up to be a Medicare patient.

If you're relatively healthy, you can use it as a free doctor's visit that does not cost you a dime more.

My wife got another call from BC/BS about a home visit. After she ended the call she said “They offered me a twenty five dollar gift card” to which I replied “Ha! They offered me seventy five dollars!”

And I still turned them down.

You are better off, the less you interact with bureaucracy. For me anyway.

^^^^^^^^
Agreed.

 
I consider my semi-annual visit to my PCP my "wellness check". They are all covered by Medicare because he is following several (Medicare chargeable) conditions of mine.
 
I consider the wellness checks by themselves to be a Medicare attempt to raise money, because they really do not do anything if you are seeing your PCP regularly. I suppose they might provide some limited benefit to those without insurance.
 
Note, I have not had a wellness check since the first year I was in Medicare. They might have improved in 14 years.
 
What gripes me about their selling of them, is that they are presented as, "your PCP, Dr. K, wants you to have this wellness check". As far as I know, he never actually orders them, but they make it sound like he does.

Your MD does not order Wellness checks. Where I live the money goes to the hospital if he works there. Your MD does not see the money.

quote:

Originally posted by ZSMICHAEL:
Your MD does not order Wellness checks. Where I live the money goes to the hospital if he works there. Your MD does not see the money.

That is what I thought. A Medicare scam in the guise of providing you with a service.

This seems intrusive to me. However, I could see a very introverted person might welcome a home health check so they don’t have to go in public.
However, being an introvert myself, I shudder at letting a stranger into my home.

Home visit for a "Wellness Check?" I get occasional emails asking me to make an appointment at my Primary Care Doc's office for a Medicare Wellness Check. I ignore them, as I have a real visit with him once or twice year, with lab blood work before the visit.

V-Tail,

At least you get the offer for your doctor. My offers are always for one of their contracted partners and home visits.

quote:

Originally posted by shovelhead:

At least you get the offer for your doctor. My offers are always for one of their contracted partners and home visits.

My response, if I ever received an offer for a home visit, would be: "No. Next question?"

V-Tail,

All they get is a no from me also.

quote:

Originally posted by shovelhead:
V-Tail,

All they get is a no from me also.

Or maybe "The billing rate for my time is $325 / hour, with a four hour minimum per day. This will be charged against a pre-paid, non-refundable retainer of $5,000. We will be able to activate your account once the retainer has been received. Thank you."

I don't bother anymore. If you want to meet a registered nurse in your home to get your blood pressure checked, go for it. As far as violating my privacy, the damned insurance, health care systems and government have already had so many data breeches that some teen-age hacker in Uzbekistan could find my last colonoscopy results. :-)

Had my annual Medicare Wellness check this morning, it's the one time a year I see my primary care doc as I'm pretty healthy for an old guy.

It went fine, I'll see him again in a year unless something breaks.