More
should be done to promote this form of preventive care, a study suggests
by William E. Gibson, AARP, August 15, 2018
Only
a tiny minority of Medicare patients are
taking advantage of cost-free annual visits to health care providers, a
research study has found. The researchers suggested that the availability of
this benefit be more widely promoted.
Annual
wellness visits (AWVs) were provided by the Affordable Care Act to improve
public health and to help prevent chronic disease. The visits come without
copayments or other out-of-pocket costs as part of an effort to serve all patients,
regardless of income.
Yet
only 8.1 percent of Medicare beneficiaries availed themselves of these
free doctor visits when they were first made
available in 2011, including just 4.5 percent of African Americans, according
to the study, published in the journal Medical Care.
By
2013, the rate for all patients remained less than 15 percent, the researchers
reported, based on the experience of 14,687 adults age 66 and older who
participated in the Medicare Current Beneficiary Survey 2011-13.
The
rate for African Americans more than tripled, to 15.4 percent, over the first
three years. Yet the overall rate for minorities remained lower than that of
whites.
Rates
also were relatively low for rural residents, those with lower incomes and
levels of education, and patients who relied on emergency room services for
their health care.
The
researchers said more should be done to let patients know about this free
service and to encourage doctors to provide it. This may include making it
simpler and easier for doctors to bill Medicare.
“The
persistence of low AWV utilization rates suggests that further efforts to
engage beneficiaries and providers are needed,” they concluded.
No comments:
Post a Comment