Annual Wellness Visit

What are annual wellness visits?

An annual wellness visit is a preventive care appointment aimed at helping you maintain optimal health and wellness. During these visits, your provider reviews and updates your medical history, assesses your overall health status, and identifies any potential health risks or concerns.

Wellness visits help you track any changes to your health, allowing the Clinica Medica Hispana team to intervene if necessary. Staying up to date on these visits can protect your health as you age, which may lead to lower care costs, less invasive treatments, and better overall health in the future.

How are annual wellness visits different from physical exams?

Annual visits are comprehensive appointments that focus on lifestyle adjustments and other types of preventive care, while physical exams usually focus on identifying early signs of disease. 

During annual wellness visits, the team conducts a thorough evaluation of your health and well-being, providing counseling on nutrition, exercise, and stress management. These visits focus on helping you take a proactive approach to care and changing any habits that can affect your health.

Physicals are more involved than wellness visits. They’re head-to-toe screenings in which the team looks inside your ears, nose, and throat, and listens to your heart and lungs. They also touch your abdomen to check for hernias and swelling before testing your muscle strength and reflexes.

What happens during annual wellness visits?

During a wellness visit, your health care provider may perform the following:

• Review your medical history and medications
• Check your vital signs (blood pressure, heart rate, respiration rate, temperature)
• Conduct a physical
• Administer immunizations
• Order lab work
• Discuss any health concerns you have and lifestyle guidance
• Offer nutritional counseling advice
• Screen for certain conditions or diseases, such as cancer or diabetes
• Order additional testing or referrals to specialists 

Any information the team gathers during these visits contributes to your overall care plan. Staying up to date on these visits ensures your plan is personalized to meet your specific needs and wellness goals.

Does insurance cover annual wellness visits?

Most insurance plans cover annual wellness visits. Medicare and Medicaid patients can also rest assured that they can receive coverage for these annual exams. While the team contracts with more than 30 major insurance carriers, patients without insurance are welcome to pay in cash.

Annual wellness visits help you track and monitor your health as you age. To schedule a wellness exam, call Clinica Medica Hispana, book an appointment online, or simply walk in.