Group medicare wellness visits: A pilot exploration of an approach to wellness and preventive medicine for older adults

Abstract

Introduction: The Medicare annual wellness visit was designed to address health risks and encourage evidence-based preventive care in aging. However, it can be challenging for providers to dedicate time for comprehensive attention to wellness during these visits. Our project implements a group setting for Medicare wellness visits (GMWV) as an efficient method for delivering high value preventive care. Methods: Three hundred patients from two primary care ambulatory clinics in Detroit, MI in need of their annual Medicare visit were invited to participate in the pilot GMWV. Fifty-eight patients agreed and completed their GMWV. The visit included collection of vitals, vision screening, and risk assessment during check-in, followed by educational wellness presentations led by an interdisciplinary team of six healthcare professionals. Patients completed a post visit-satisfaction survey and researchers calculated rates of completion of health maintenance gaps (HMG), i.e. immunizations and cancer screenings, among participants. Results: The average age of participants (N female = 48) was 74 years old. Thirty-four participants had more than one HMG at baseline. On average, 8 % of immunization gaps and 12 % of screening gaps were completed at or within one-year post GMWV. Participant feedback reported that 82 % of patients felt that they learned something new from the presentation and 81 % of patients felt satisfied with the amount of time they spent with their physician. Discussion: GMWV is a feasible approach to promoting wellness and healthy aging that patients find satisfying although, additional study is needed to compare the effectiveness of this model to standard care.

Keywords

• Healthy aging
• Medicare wellness
• Patient satisfaction
• Shared medical appointment
• Health maintenance gap
• Chronic disease management