In defense of Medicare’s annual wellness exam
Medicare's free annual wellness visits give primary care physicians much-needed time to talk with their older patients about screening and preventive care.
In my work as a primary care physician, time is a precious commodity. I rarely have enough of it in office visits with my patients. That’s one reason I’m all in favor of Medicare’s free annual wellness visits, though I know that other physicians feel differently about them.
I began performing these exams with my older patients when Medicare began . They afford me much-needed time to counsel my older patients about the potential benefits and risks of the ever-increasing number of preventive health measures available to them. I don’t
