Eating healthier, exercising more, and losing weight are all common New Year’s resolutions for 2025. While that fact may not be surprising, it highlights an overlooked opportunity for physician practices. Namely, the opportunity to invite your senior patients to come in for their Medicare Advantage plans’ Annual Wellness Visit (AWV) and other preventive care. After all, who better to help your patients achieve those New Year’s resolutions than their physician?
Proactively scheduling AWVs for your Medicare Advantage patients can jump-start beneficial patient engagement, leading to better patient care and quality performance. This can be especially helpful if your practice participates in alternative payment models, including Medicare Advantage (MA) risk-based arrangements. In addition, studies suggest AWVs can more actively engage seniors in preventive care.
So, here are some strategies to encourage your patients to take a proactive approach to their health—and maybe enable them to fulfill their New Year’s resolutions in the process!
Early patient scheduling strategies
Being intentional about scheduling AWVs (instead of waiting for your patients to make appointments) makes it easier for your patients to get ahead of potential health problems. That’s because it gives you more time to identify care gaps, complete risk assessments, update prescriptions, and provide referrals to specialists.
But planning and communication are key.
First, reach out to your patients with Medicare Advantage in the last quarter of the year to schedule them for their AWV during the first quarter of the following year.
The AWV includes services such as doing a health risk assessment, conducting mental health and cognitive screenings, and creating a personalized prevention plan. During the appointment, providers can review the patient’s medical history and discuss any barriers to care. While the AWV must follow Medicare regulations, some additional benefits may be available from MA plans.
Either way, an AWV offers the opportunity to identify care gaps and health risks so that steps can be taken to address them early. Therefore, you should be prepared to help patients schedule any follow-up visits, screenings, or exams before they leave your office.
Tip: As you schedule the follow-up visits, ask patients which communication method they prefer (e.g., text, phone call, or email). Then, have your care coordinators use it to remind patients about their appointments.
Also, some aspects of the AWV may dovetail with quality performance measures supported by your practice’s alternative payment models. If so, be sure those activities are completed! That way, both your patients and your practice may benefit.
Finally, consider leveraging advanced practice providers (APPs) such as physician assistants (PAs) or nurse practitioners (NPs) to conduct AWVs and annual physicals. This allows you to focus on complex cases or acute situations requiring your expertise. Plus, APPs can often spend more time with each patient—e.g., 30 minutes instead of 15 minutes.
New year, new opportunities
Every year brings new opportunities to encourage your senior patients to take advantage of their AWV. By taking a proactive approach to scheduling this important preventive care planning visit, practices may be able to improve patient health outcomes and engagement.
Take action! Start scheduling AWVs for your senior patients today.