What to Expect from Your Annual Wellness Exam

Did you know an annual wellness exam is covered 100% by your insurance? It’s like your insurance company’s gift to you – a one-stop exam to cover your preventative health needs and keep you on the path to a healthy lifestyle.

Why do I need an annual exam?

When we’re talking about a well exam, we’re expecting that you are in fact…well. Instead of discussing acute or chronic conditions, this appointment is set aside to discuss preventive health – things to keep you healthy rather than treating you when you’re sick – and to answer questions about nutrition or exercise, and evaluate appropriate screenings based on your age, family history, and risk factors.

Most healthcare providers recommend you get a physical exam at least once a year. The purpose of an annual wellness exam is to:

• Check your general health – including skin, eyes and ears, nose and mouth, heart, lungs, abdomen, feet, nervous system, and mental health.
• Verify immunization status and provide vaccines if needed.
• Discuss diet and lifestyle modifications.
• Clarify any specialists needed.
• Order annual screenings (such as routine labs, pap smear, mammogram, and colonoscopy).

“Since most insurance companies do require that we cover acute or chronic care in a separate visit from the well-health exam, patients should not save up all their concerns until their annual visit but rather bring those up right away as they occur,” says Michelle Krieger, P.A.-C. at MyMichigan Family Medicine in Midland. “If however, you arrive for your well health exam and realize you have more pressing health concerns that we need to discuss, make sure to notify your provider, as we may be able to address those concerns more immediately and reschedule your well health exam for another time.”

What will I learn from my wellness exam?

Once your exam is complete, your provider will let you know if there are any additional concerns about your health that you should know about, whether additional testing or bloodwork is needed, if you should see a specialist, and steps you can take to improve your health.

The wellness exam should take roughly 30 minutes, and your provider may schedule additional tests or ask for a follow-up appointment. Keep in mind, preventative wellness exams are 100% paid for by insurance. However, acute health problems, chronic care management and medication changes are all billed differently and require separate appointments.

When should I contact my doctor in-between annual exams?

Don’t save up all your health woes for your preventative wellness exam. Always contact your primary care provider if you have questions about your health or test results, have new or worsening symptoms, or notice changes to your body – like a lump or new skin growth. The sooner you contact your provider to troubleshoot the problem, the more options there may be for your care.

“If there are acute problems that pop up, we want you to call your primary care office,” Krieger says. “If you have a urinary tract infection, injury, abdominal pain – the kind of things you may go to urgent care for – we really strongly encourage you to call your primary care office first.”

Michelle R. Krieger, P.A.-C., is a physician assistant at MyMichigan Family Medicine in Midland. She is a graduate of Central Michigan University and began practicing in 2012.