Medicare preventive services and wellness visits

The Welcome to Medicare preventive visit

You can have this visit once, within the first 12 months you have Part B. Your provider reviews your medical and social history, checks your height, weight, blood pressure and vision, and gives you a written plan of the screenings and shots you need. It costs nothing if your provider accepts assignment.

The yearly wellness visit

After your first 12 months with Part B, you can have a wellness visit once every 12 months to create or update a personalized prevention plan. It costs nothing if your provider accepts assignment. It can't be within 12 months of your Welcome to Medicare visit or a previous wellness visit.

A wellness visit isn't a physical

Medicare doesn't cover routine head-to-toe physical exams. If your doctor examines a new problem or orders tests during a wellness visit, you may be billed separately for that care, with the usual deductible and coinsurance. It helps to ask what will be billed as preventive and what won't.

Preventive services Part B covers

Coverage often depends on your age, risk factors and how recently you had the test. Examples include:

• Cardiovascular screening blood tests.
• Screening mammograms and cervical cancer screenings.
• Colorectal cancer screenings.
• Diabetes screenings and diabetes prevention programs for people who qualify.
• Depression screening and alcohol misuse screening.
• Lung cancer screening for people who qualify.
• Flu, pneumococcal, hepatitis B and COVID-19 vaccines under Part B. Other recommended adult vaccines, such as shingles, are covered at no cost under Part D.