Transcription:
Annual Well Visit vs. Problem Visit

Helen: Welcome back to the Well Within Reach Podcast. I'm your host, Helen Dandarand. And today I'm going to be joined by Jen Nasers, Riverside's Regional ractice manager for the Southern market to talk about annual well visits versus problem visits. Thanks for joining me today, Jen.

Jen Nasers: Thank you for having me, helen.

Helen: Yeah, we're glad to have you. Can you to get us started? Tell us a little bit about yourself and your background.

Jen Nasers: Sure. Absolutely. I'm actually local to the Southern market. That is my home. I have a bachelor's degree in health administration. I've always been in healthcare. I actually started out as a medical assistant working here in the hospital, not going to talk about the year because I don't want to show my age, but Riverside offers so many great programs for those wanting to move into leadership roles. And I feel that I am proof of that.

You know, I started out as a medical assistant, working in an OB raised, up that ladder. Took some leadership classes here at Riverside. Went back to school, worked in Dr. Hannah's office as a site supervisor, and then moved my way into my hometown. Watseka. When they built the facility there. I've always been so passionate about helping people. It's, I guess my sign is a Virgo, I want to be pleaser.

Helen: I'm a too.

Jen Nasers: Oh, see, that's why we get along Helen. Riverside continues to bring that quality care to the community in which I live in. Being able to be a part of that is what drives me to continue. To develop Riverside Watseka campus and bring more services and specialty providers to the community in which I live in.

Helen: That's awesome. That's great. They've you gotten to develop your career here and then it also moved closer to you. So that's, really a great thing. So today we're going to be talking more about, like I said, on annual well visit versus problem visits. It's something that's been coming up a lot lately and a lot to kind of clear up. So we're just going to go through and kind of talk about what each thing is and why it is. So to start off, like, what would you say is classified as an annual wellness visit?

Jen Nasers: So an annual wellness visit is a yearly appointment with your primary care to create or update, personalized prevention plan, review medications, get your annual lab work. This annual visit may help prevent illnesses based on your current health and risk factors.

Helen: Got it. Okay. That makes sense. And then, what is a Medicare annual wellness visit? How does that differentiate?

Jen Nasers: So if you have had Medicare part B medical insurance for longer than 12 months, you can get a yearly wellness exam. You start with your welcome to Medicare. Then you go to your initial the year after that, which has to be 365 days, it's called a subsequent. So the annual wellness visits develop or update your personal prevention plan and your health risk assessment. That's also completed by your provider. This annual Medicare wellness exam is free to those who have Medicare part B for 12 months or longer.

And it goes through a whole list of preventative things. It even goes through a living will and so forth. So it's really good who are on Medicare to do this with their primary care every year, because it is a paid service by Medicare. If you've got part B.

Helen: That's awesome. That makes total sense. And so moving on from those two that are more kind of preventative, what is considered a problem visit?

Jen Nasers: A problem visit is more of an acute issue and reason to see your healthcare provider problem visits our office visits during which time the patient voices, a medical concern or a problem they've been having, or a possible exposure or infection. A problem visit addresses, symptoms, complaints, history of that problem. During a problem visit the provider will do an evaluation and management and discuss the problem more in detail and make sure that that problem is addressed.

Helen: Got it. So problem problem. Visit you have a problem. It sense. But I think the thing that I was curious about is why is it important to know the difference? Why can't you bring your problems to your annual wellness visit?

Jen Nasers: Sure understanding the difference between wellness and a problem visit helps patients get the clarity of the goals of the office visit and the expected. Problem or chronic issues should not be brought up during wellness visits for the simple fact that a wellness visit addresses preventative services, it focuses on how to prevent chronic disease and illness. And a problem visit concentrates exactly that, on that problem that you're having. It also entails an evaluation of management of that chronic issue. Whether stems to having medication prescribed or lab work or maybe a diagnostic exam, whereas in a wellness or preventative visit, isn't going to lead to medications and ordering, outside testing diagnostics or a referral for a specialist.

Helen: Got it. So it's like showing up and knowing where the energy of the appointment's going to be we to focus our energy on just like prevention and talking about, health overall? Or are we going to go into specifics and take the time to go into problem issues? Makes sense. So we're going to take a quick break to talk about finding a primary care provider, because with all of this, you know, with all these visits, you have to have an established primary care provider to go to each year. And Riverside knows that health is your greatest asset and that your primary care provider is your partner in health. So you can find a primary care provider that fits your needs@riversidehealthcare.org slash primary care.

So back into the topic of the different types of visits we kind of talked about how your annual visits are focused on preventative care. Can you tell me a little more about why preventative care is so important?

Jen Nasers: Routine healthcare that includes screenings check-ups and patient counseling to prevent illness, disease, or other health problems may help prevent those actual illnesses and diseases and other health problems, or to detect an early stages of An illness. and hopefully the provider can then prescribe a treatment that is likely that will work best and prevent those or stop it in its tracks. Preventative is so important because it does address and it looks for preventative. Routine healthcare that includes screenings and checkups and patient counseling to prevent illness or disease or other health problems may also in fact, help prevent those diseases or health problems that are detected early. That's why prevention is so important. And. I cannot stress enough how important it is to get your yearly checkups.

Helen: Yeah, you want to make sure that you're on track, that everything's going well, and you don't think about it, until it's too late. So if you just have that scheduled visit every year then you know that you'll kind of stay on track and it's never gone too long.

Jen Nasers: I completely agree, Helen.

Helen: Yeah. So finally, I've heard the term health maintenance kind of tossed around a little bit. Why is health maintenance so important?

Jen Nasers: Health maintenance is maintenance or improvement of health via prevention, diagnosis, treatment recovery, or cure of disease, illness, injury, and other physical and mental impairments in people. Healthcare is delivered by health professionals in allied health fields, health maintenance, or preventative care is as important Component of primary care medicine, which addresses preventative measures, such as mammos, diabetic eye exam, colonoscopy. If you're diabetic getting your A1C below nine, these entire preventative measures help to prevent or slow the progression of chronic disease and illness.

Helen: Great. Yeah, I think it's just so important. Like I said, a couple of minutes ago. Just figuring out, finding a provider that you trust and that you can go to. It kind of becomes like a friend that you go and see and, tell them. No, this is things are good and they'll make sure you're good. And, you've kind of worked together. So I think it's really great to have that and important to have that. Thank you for joining us today, Jen.

Jen Nasers: Absolutely. Thanks for having me Helen.

Helen: Yeah, of course. And thank you listeners for tuning into the well within reach podcast brought to you by Riverside Healthcare. For more information, visit Riversidehealthcare.org.