May 08, 2015 11:03 am News Staff – It’s really pretty simple: Medicare’s annual wellness visit (AWV) — established as a preventive service available to Medicare beneficiaries effective Jan. 1, 2011 — aims to help keep senior patients healthy.
So when the AAFP and six other national organizations learned that some commercial entities that purport to offer services above and beyond those offered by most primary care physician practices were possibly “subverting that benefit” and “misleading patients,” they called on CMS to investigate.
That’s the gist of an April 30 letter(2 page PDF) to CMS Acting Administrator Andrew Slavitt that was signed by the AAFP, the AMA, the American College of Osteopathic Family Physicians, the American College of Osteopathic Internists, the American College of Physicians, the American Osteopathic Association and the Medical Group Management Association.