Answers to your questions about medicare annual wellness visits.

Medicare annual wellness visits made easier.

Medicare annual wellness visits: don't forget the health risk assessment.

Cindy Hughes, CPC F Practice Management (FPM) published several articles and an encounter form last year related to Medicare’s new annual wellness visit (AWV) benefit. Some physicians decided not to offer the AWV due to the complexity of the requirements, but many adapted to Medicare’s version of preventive care and provided these visits in 2011. Unfortunately, the requirements for 2012 have ch...

Redefining Medicare's long-term financial health: a closer look at the "Medicare funding warning" in the trustees' report.

The Medicare Prescription Drug, Improvement, and Modernization Act of 2003 (MMA) requires a new fiscal analysis of Medicare’s finances as part of the annual Medicare Trustees’ Report. This analysis is intended to supplement the separate analyses of the Hospital Insurance (HI) and Supplementary Medical Insurance (SMI) Trust Funds. While the Trustees are not required to include this new analysis ...

Alzheimer's Association recommendations for operationalizing the detection of cognitive impairment during the Medicare Annual Wellness Visit in a primary care setting

The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act added a new Medicare benefit, the Annual Wellness Visit (AWV), effective January 1, 2011. The AWV requires an assessment to detect cognitive impairment. The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) elected not to recommend a specific assessment tool because there is no single, universally accepted screen that satisfies all needs in the dete...

Answers to your questions about chronic care management.

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) began paying for chronic care management (CCM) services on Jan. 1 of this year. While many physicians have embraced the opportunity to finally be paid for the non-face-to-face services associated with managing patients’ chronic conditions, meeting Medicare’s billing requirements is challenging. An article in FPM ’s January/February issue (http:...