By Eric Wolf Schoen
Earlier this year, I had my 65 Birthday. I was told that if anyone came to question me about it, just tell them these three words and I would be safe :banana, sunrise and chair.
Maybe I was missing something? Tell them three words and I would be safe? Three words? Safe. From what? Banana? I love them. Sunrise? Some beautiful sunrises can be seen from the Yonkers city pier. Chair? That was a little more difficult to understand.
A friend with a birthday close to mine told me the federal government had put into place a program called a Medicare Wellness Visit, a doctor may use a simple memory test involving three words to assess cognitive function. These words are typically “banana,” “sunrise,” and “chair”. The doctor will ask the patient to remember these words, and later, they will be asked to recall them. This test helps identify potential issues with memory and cognitive decline.
Leave it to our government to come up with a program to test our cognitive status. Leave it to our government to come up with an hour of questions for a doctor to ask us to make sure we are living and breathing. Many of the The questions have nothing to do with medicine, but they are asked of us by a medical doctor and his or her medical assistant. Many of the questions are legal in nature, but the responses are judged by a medical doctor.
Annual Wellness Visits (AWV) and annual physicals are incredibly important for patients, and they are often mistaken as the same service because they sound similar. However, these two types of visits significantly differ, so it’s crucial that patients know what they are having. correctly. While a physical includes a full examination and a wellness evaluation, an Annual Wellness Visits focuses solely on a patient’s answers to a health risk assessment.
It does not typically include any lab work or tests requiring physical contact. Topics range from wills to living wills
One of the most significant distinctions is that a physical exam is more extensive than a wellness visit. An AWV mainly consists of assessments and does not require a physical exam, but an annual physical does require an AWV
When I saw an hour of my doctor’s time allotted., I knew I was having more than the regular physical exam. The doctor might get some good information that can help the patient from the wellness exam, but I question when it goes off the medicinal path and the doctor is advising on issues he or she does not specialize in.
Can that time be used for discussion on areas the doctor is properly trained. With a new administration in Washington, we will see where this all goes.
Reach Eric Wolf Schoen at ewschoen@icloud.com.
