The Medicare annual wellness visit in brief
What is a Medicare annual wellness visit? It is a yearly planning appointment. A clinician reviews your health risks, updates your records and gives you a written prevention plan for the years ahead. It is mostly conversation, with little hands-on examination.
People often expect a physical and get a questionnaire. Knowing what the visit is for helps you use it well and avoid a bill you did not expect.
Who can have one, and how often
In general, Medicare offers the visit once every 12 months to people who have had Part B for longer than 12 months. During the first 12 months of Part B there is a separate, one-time “Welcome to Medicare” visit with a similar purpose.
Medicare Advantage plans have wellness visits as well, and each plan sets its own details. The treating practice checks your eligibility and dates before it schedules anything.
What happens before, during and after
- Before. You fill out a health risk questionnaire. It asks about daily activities, falls, mood, hearing, bladder control and safety at home.
- History. The clinician updates your medical and family history and lists every clinician, supplier, medication and supplement involved in your care.
- Measurements. Height, weight and blood pressure are taken.
- Screening questions. The clinician checks for signs of memory or thinking problems and reviews your risk for depression and for falls.
- Planning. You may be offered time to talk about your wishes for future care. That part is voluntary, and our advance care planning conversation starters can help you prepare.
- After. You receive a written schedule of the screenings and vaccines to consider, with advice or referrals for any risks that turned up.
What the visit leaves out
- A head-to-toe physical examination
- Blood tests, scans and other tests, which may be ordered but are separate services
- Evaluation of a new symptom
- Changes to the plan for an ongoing condition
- Assessment of a wound, or orders for dressings
This list is where surprise bills come from. If you raise a new problem and the clinician deals with it in the same appointment, that work may be billed as a separate service with its own cost.
Cost questions to ask before you book
The words used at scheduling matter. “Physical”, “checkup” and “wellness visit” can mean different services to a billing office. Ask the practice:
- Is this appointment scheduled as a Medicare annual wellness visit?
- If I bring up a new problem, will you address it that day, and would it be billed separately?
- Are any tests you might order billed separately?
Gateway cannot tell you what a plan pays. Benefits depend on your plan and the treating practice, and our insurance page lists more questions to ask.
How to get more from the visit
Answer the questionnaire honestly. Falls, bladder leaks, memory slips and low mood are the things people most often leave off, and they are the things the visit is built to catch.
Have these ready:
- Every medication, cream, vitamin and supplement
- Dates of past vaccines and screening tests, if you have them
- The names of all your clinicians, including the wound care team
- A relative or friend who knows your routine
Ask for a copy of the written plan. When the visit happens where you live, the clinician also sees your stairs, your bathroom and how you get around. Our page on annual wellness visits at home explains how Gateway helps arrange one.
Using the plan afterward
The plan only helps if someone follows it up. Go through it and ask who will arrange each item.
For vaccines and screenings, see preventive care and vaccines, or our guide to preventive care for homebound adults if getting out is hard. If the visit flagged unsteadiness, the next step is usually a closer look at mobility and fall risk.
When a wellness visit is the wrong appointment
Do not save a problem for a wellness visit. A new symptom, a medication question or a change in a chronic condition needs a regular visit. A sore that is not healing needs a clinician who can examine it, and Gateway arranges mobile wound care with partner clinicians for that.
Call 911 for chest pain, trouble breathing, signs of a stroke or any other emergency.
To ask about a wellness visit or primary care follow-up in Greater St. Louis or the Metro East, call 314-325-0126 or send the request care form with a name and phone number only.
Common questions
Can an annual wellness visit be done at home or by video?
Sometimes. Some practices do wellness visits in the home, and some offer them by video. Availability depends on the practice, your plan and the rules in effect at the time. At home, the clinician can also see where falls and medication mix-ups happen.
How is this different from the Welcome to Medicare visit?
The Welcome to Medicare visit is a one-time introductory visit offered during your first 12 months with Part B. The annual wellness visit starts after that and can repeat each year. Both are about prevention and planning, and neither is a full physical. The practice will work out which one applies to you.
My plan sent someone to my home for a health assessment. Is that the same thing?
Not necessarily. Some Medicare Advantage plans arrange their own in-home health assessments. Whether that counts as your wellness visit for the year depends on the plan, so ask. Also ask the plan to send the results to your primary care practice.
Can I skip the wellness visit if I see my doctor often?
Yes. It is optional. Still, regular visits tend to be taken up by the problem of the day. The wellness visit is the one appointment set aside for looking at fall risk, memory, mood, vaccines and screenings together, so it can catch things that problem visits pass over.
Related pages
General information to help you talk with your own clinician. It is not medical advice, and the treating clinician makes every clinical decision. For a medical emergency, call 911.
Updated October 2026