PCPs should make a greater effort to identify Medicare patients who regularly skip annual wellness visits, otherwise they represent a missed opportunity to conduct periodic cognitive assessments, according to data presented at the Alzheimer’s Association International Conference 2016.
The researchers reported that demographic groups with statistically higher rates of dementia — those older than 74 years of age, blacks and Hispanics — were more likely to have Mini-Cog scores consistent with cognitive impairment, but less likely to have had an annual wellness visit.
“The Medicare annual wellness visit can be implemented on a broad scale and sustained over time in health systems, and offers a regular opportunity to establish a baseline measurement and identify changes that may indicate Alzheimer’s or another dementia,” Pamela Mink, PhD, MPH, of Allina Health, in Minneapolis, who presented the data…Read More Here.