Annual preventive care visits

With the New Year, people often make resolutions or set goals for themselves. Let this be the year that you see all your patients for their annual preventive care visit.

As you know, annual visits are mutually beneficial to both you and your patients. These visits help establish a strong provider-patient relationship, which is essential in achieving the best healthcare outcomes. Establishing baseline measurements, knowing family history, and understanding unique risk factors and concerns can help you provide appropriate and culturally sensitive guidance on reducing risk for disease. Patients who report positive interactions with their healthcare providers demonstrate greater self-management and quality of life, as well as a reduction in emergency room visits and inpatient admissions.

Start the new year on the right foot:

• If you are seeing a patient for the first time, ask them to have their previous provider send their medical records.
• Begin reaching out to harder to engage patients early in the year.
• Reach out to patients at least [two months] prior to their birthday to schedule an appointment.
• Remind patients of their upcoming appointment via phone, text, and/or email as it approaches to avoid no shows.
• Remember to verify your patient’s benefits and eligibility prior to scheduling appointments.
• Screen for social needs that may be a barrier for care.
• If you need to refer a patient for a test or to a specialist, manage their expectations and follow-up with both the patient and provider.

Make sure to get the credit you deserve by reporting all services provided and use all appropriate billing codes:

• The annual visit service is coded based on the patient’s age.
• Use CPT^® Category II codes with your claims encounters to maximize HEDIS^® data collection and reduce the burden of HEDIS medical record review. Go to the American Medical Association website at ama-assn.org for a complete list of CPT codes.
• If you are using an electronic medical record system, consider electronic data sharing with the health plan to capture all coded elements to facilitate HEDIS data collection and more accurate gap in care reports.