AZ Blue Best Life Plus (HMO): Annual Wellness or Physical Visit

What it is

The provider will request the completion of a questionnaire, called a “Health Risk Assessment,” as part of this visit. Answering these questions helps develop a personalized prevention plan for health and well-being, and to get the most out of your visits. The wellness visit may include:

• Routine measurements (like height, weight, and blood pressure).

• A review of medical and family history.

• A review of current prescriptions, as well as over-the-counter drugs and supplements.

• Personalized health advice.

• Advance care planning.

The provider will also perform a cognitive assessment to look for signs of dementia, including Alzheimer’s disease. Signs of cognitive impairment include trouble remembering, learning new things, concentrating, managing finances, and making decisions about everyday life. If the provider thinks there is cognitive impairment, a separate visit to thoroughly review cognitive function and check for conditions like dementia, depression, anxiety, or delirium is covered (as is creating an associated care plan for those needs).

The annual wellness visit can identify any problem areas and detect abnormalities in the body or blood that need further assessment and treatment.  Yearly check-ups are essential to disease prevention and management by identifying what’s working and what’s not before major issues develop.

Annual wellness visits help to develop or update a personalized prevention and management plan (often called a “care plan”) based on current health and risk factors.  It is important to recognize that a lot can change, for better or worse, over the course of 12 months, and not all changes are obvious.  Changes in blood pressure, blood sugar, kidney function, hearing or vision, weight, pain, digestion, and many more, often don’t come with signs or symptoms, whether improving or worsening.

Annual wellness visits are also a good time to review all prescription and over-the-counter medications, especially to determine and discuss any potential drug-drug or food-drug interactions, any side effects, if the medications are working as they should, if any changes need to be made, and explore what’s called “deprescribing,” which is the planned process of reducing or stopping medications that may no longer be of benefit or may be causing harm.

*Note that the first annual wellness visit cannot take place within 12 months of the “Welcome to Medicare” preventive visit.