The Annual Wellness Visit, despite its generous reimbursement has left many doctors still uncertain how to produce a compliant report and to find time to do it. The Annual Wellness Visit helps plan patient care and ensure that they are aware of all the preventive testing that is recommended to them to improve their health outcomes. Over 60% of Medicare patients currently do not have their preventive screening tests performed, leaving them at risk of chronic or severe disease states occurring or being detected at a later stage when treatment may be more difficult.
- What do I need to get started?
Your Certified Ancillary Consultant will provide you an agreement which you review, sign and return. Our vendor can assist in supporting your office to recruit a suitable technician. If you already have someone in mind then training will be organized typically within 2 to 4 weeks of the agreement being signed. The office will need to have a room for the technician to use. For office supplied techs, a computer and printer will be provided and for those offices supplying their own tech they will also need to supply their own computer. Internet access is also required. Our consultant will work with your office and the vendor to guide you through the implementation process as seamlessly as possible.
- How long will it take to implement the program?
Once the agreement is signed, the office can be up and running typically within around 4 weeks.
- What makes your offer different to other Annual Wellness Providers?
Typically other Annual Wellness Providers do everything they can to get the patient TO your office for the Annual Wellness Visit, leaving you to handle the workload of the visit. With our program, all you need to do is get the patient to the office and our technician handles the rest. We provide ongoing support and monitor reimbursements and Medicare changes to ensure reimbursements and patient care are maximized.
- What do I tell my patients?
The Annual Wellness Visit is part of an initiative from the Affordable Care Act. By participating in an Annual Wellness Visit, your patient is more likely to stay at home, safe and well for longer. A large part of the components of care lie in prevention and as we all know prevention is better than cure. There are no co pays for the patient on the Annual Wellness Visit and a number of follow up tests. The Visit will identify areas that may have not been previously found to highlight a health risk. Some education is provided to enable patients to take better care of themselves.
- How does it benefit my practice?
The benefits are many. The Visit is very patient focused and highlights aspects of care that will enable better patient outcomes. The dementia testing will help identify the 70 to 75% of patients that are currently undiagnosed with dementia or predementia and also the high percentage of patients who are not taking advantage of preventive testing for other conditions. For every 500 Medicare patients the program can increase revenues upwards of $200 000 per year depending on the services offered. When adding in some other programs available from Ancillary Medical Solutions this could look more like a further $375 000 per year if including Fall Prevention and Chronic Care Management.
The Annual Wellness Visit is the best way to gain HEDIS, PQRS and Meaningful Use Credits which will safeguard your future reimbursements.
- What happens if I don’t do the Annual Wellness Visit?
Your practice will be missing out on the easiest way to comply with HEDIS, Meaningful Use and PQRS Credits. These points safeguard your future reimbursements. Your patients also get valuable access to preventive care with the Annual Wellness Visit. This helps keep patients at home, well and safe for longer and reduces costs of managed care.
- Why do my patients need additional testing on top of the Annual Wellness Visit?
Providing these additional services adds to the opportunity to identify risks early to create an awareness around further care and testing. With awareness, patients can be monitored for speed of disease progression in the case of dementia. This also will help detect the large percentage of patients that are currently going undiagnosed with dementia and predementia. Genetic and cancer screening typically does not reimburse for the physician and is easy to add into the convenience of a comprehensive risk assessment visit, giving the physician also a chance to review the results with the patient proactively.
The benefits to the patient and practice are many. For more information on this or any of our other ancillary solutions check on the link below.