Wellness and Prevention
We understand life can get busy, but maintaining wellness is essential. Schedule yearly exams for you and your loved ones, including children. Remember, regular preventive care and bloodwork is the best way to manage ongoing and underlying conditions.
Consider the following screenings and preventive care for yourself or your loved ones:
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If you need help finding a doctor in our Clinically Integrated Network, visit our find-a-doctor page.
Investing in your health today is an important step in ensuring quality of life for years to come. We embrace your pursuit of wellness through a Medicare approved service known as the Annual Wellness Visit.
What is an Annual Wellness Visit?
Established by Medicare in 2011, the Annual Wellness Visit is a free service* that focuses on health promotion and disease prevention. This appointment provides you with the opportunity to partner with your care provider in order to create your own personalized prevention plan that will help you stay healthy and get the most out of your visit.
Who is Eligible?
The Annual Wellness Visit is offered to all patients who have had Medicare Part B for longer than 12 months. Once created, your personalized prevention plan can be updated every 12 months.
For those new to Medicare, there is also a “Welcome to Medicare” visit offered as a preventative care visit within the first 12 months of your Medicare Part B coverage.
Please speak with your primary care provider regarding the best appointment to meet your needs!
What is included in the Annual Wellness Visit?
Your provider will ask you to fill out a questionnaire, called a Health Risk Assessment. Answering these questions can help you and your provider develop a personalized prevention plan. This visit also includes:
- Review of your medical and family history
- Review of current providers and prescriptions
- Height, weight, blood pressure, and other routine measurements
- Detection of any cognitive (memory) impairment
- Personalized health advice
- Assessment of risk factors and treatment options for you
- Screening schedule (like a checklist) for appropriate preventive services
- Advance Care Planning Discussion
What is your cost?
You pay nothing* for the Annual Wellness visit if your doctor or other qualified health care provider accepts assignment. *If your health care provider performs additional tests or services during the same visit that are not covered under these preventive benefits, you may be required to pay coinsurance, and the Part B deductible may apply.
How do you schedule?
Please contact your primary care provider to schedule your Welcome to Medicare Preventive Visit or your Annual Wellness Visit.
Screening can help doctors find and treat several types of cancer, before they cause symptoms. These screenings have been shown to detect cancer early, reduce the degree of treatment needed and decrease the chance of dying from that cancer.
Your primary care physician can best help you understand your cancer risk. It is important to share your personal and family history with your provider. Based on your personal or family history your provider may recommend earlier or more frequent screening.
Learn more about screening recommendations from the American Cancer Society and United States Preventative Service Task Force.
Colorectal cancer is the second leading cancer killer in the United States, but it doesn’t have to be. If you are 50 years of age or older, getting a colorectal cancer screening test could save your life.
Types of screenings:
- Stool tests (Guaiac-based fecal occult blood test, fecal immunochemical test, stool DNA test)
- Flexible saigmoidoscopy
- Colonoscopy
- CT colonography (virtual colonoscopy)
Talk to your doctor about which test or tests are right for you and how often you should be screened.
Providers in our CIN network can offer comprehensive self-management education, clinical and support services to help improve quality of life for those affected by diabetes. This includes a wide range of expertise and services, all of which are designed to help them best self-manage their diabetes.
Advancing age is an indicator for increased fall risk, 30% – 40% of people aged 65 years and older who live in the community fall, of which many result in injury. Each year over $50 billion dollars is spent on medical costs associated with non-fatal falls; the leading threat to quality of life for older adults, often limiting their ability to conduct self-care.
Assessing for risk and coordinating appropriate interventions will aide in reducing injuries and improving the longevity of independence through the aging process.
Without proper treatment, hypertension (high blood pressure) places you at greater risk of heart-related problems. There are two measurements that determine high blood pressure:
- Systolic: The systolic number reflects the pressure against the arterial walls immediately after the heart pumps. This is the top number in the reading. For example, if your blood pressure is 120/80 (described as 120 over 80), the systolic measurement is 120.
- Diastolic: The diastolic number represents the pressure against the arterial walls when your heart is at rest briefly, between heart beats. This is the bottom number in the reading. Using the same example, if your blood pressure is 120 over 80, the diastolic measurement is 80.
A normal adult blood pressure measurement is at or below 130 over 85. A reading above 140/90 is considered high, and consultation from your doctor is necessary.
Cigarette smoking is the biggest risk factor for sudden cardiac death—smokers have two to four times the risk of nonsmokers. Studies have shown cigarette smoking to be an important risk factor for stroke.
Smoking makes your heartbeat faster, harder, and irregularly. It also decreases the amount of oxygen in your blood. It produces a greater relative risk in persons under 50 than in those over 50. Women who smoke and use oral contraceptives greatly increase their risk of coronary heart disease and stroke compared with nonsmoking women who use oral contraceptives. Even second-hand smoke can be a major risk factor.