Annual wellness visit · screening tests

Fitting the assessments to an annual wellness visit

The instrument-based assessments fit an annual wellness visit best as a separate testing appointment run by trained staff, with the results reviewed at the visit itself. Measured cognitive, fall-risk and functional data then replaces the questionnaires those wellness visit elements usually rely on.

The Medicare annual wellness visit already requires several of the things this suite measures. The difference is measuring them instead of asking about them.

What is included in a Medicare annual wellness visit?

A wellness visit is built around a health risk assessment, a review of medical and family history, a medication and supplement list, routine measurements, detection of cognitive impairment, a review of functional ability and level of safety including fall risk, and a written screening schedule. Three of those — cognitive detection, fall risk and functional ability — are conventionally satisfied by a questionnaire.

Which wellness visit elements can measured testing replace?

Wellness visit element	Conventional method	Measured alternative
Detection of cognitive impairment	Observation or brief informal questioning	A structured screening instrument administered by a certified rater, producing a comparable baseline
Fall risk	“Have you fallen in the past year?”	Vestibular, oculomotor, orthostatic and peripheral sensory measurement
Functional ability and safety	Self-report	Body composition and segmental muscle distribution, plus balance testing
Routine measurements	Height, weight, BMI, blood pressure	The same, plus body composition, waist circumference and measured resting energy expenditure
Written screening schedule	A generic age-and-sex schedule	The same schedule, with repeat intervals set by what the measurements actually showed

How do you schedule testing around an annual wellness visit?

The assessments do not all have to happen in the wellness visit itself, and in most practices they should not.

1. Before the visit: history, medication and supplement list, and the health risk assessment. Fasting instructions issued if metabolic rate or laboratory work is planned.
2. Separate testing appointment: the instrument-based assessments, performed by trained staff. This is where the time goes and it does not need to occupy physician time.
3. The wellness visit itself: review of the completed measurements, the cognitive screen if it was not done at testing, the personalized prevention plan, and the written screening schedule built from the results.

Splitting it this way is the difference between a wellness visit that runs to time and one that does not. Staffing and workflow sets out who does what.

What goes in the written screening schedule?

The element most often produced as a template is the one that benefits most from measurement. A schedule that says “repeat vascular assessment in 12 months because the stiffness index was borderline” is a different document from one that says “annual.” It also gives the patient a reason to come back that is theirs rather than the calendar’s.

For patients: the same subject written for the person having the assessment is at what to expect at an appointment.

Common questions

Can the testing be done on the same day as the wellness visit?

It can, but the full suite plus a wellness visit is a long morning for the patient. Splitting them usually works better. How long testing takes.

Who performs the cognitive screen?

A trained rater; consistency of administration matters more than who holds the pencil. What a baseline is for.

Does this require the physician to be in the room throughout?

Supervision requirements vary by study and setting. Supervision and staffing.

What should happen before the annual wellness visit?

Before the visit, the practice collects the history, the medication and supplement list, and the health risk assessment. If a metabolic rate measurement or laboratory work is planned, the patient gets fasting instructions at this stage. The instrument-based testing then happens at a separate appointment run by trained staff, so the wellness visit itself is spent reviewing results and building the prevention plan.

How does measured testing change the fall risk assessment?

The conventional fall risk check is a single question: have you fallen in the past year? The measured alternative tests the systems that keep a person upright, with vestibular, oculomotor, orthostatic and peripheral sensory measurement. Functional ability moves the same way, from self-report to body composition, segmental muscle distribution and balance testing. Each measured result can be audited and compared year over year.

Why measure instead of using a questionnaire at the wellness visit?

A questionnaire records what the patient says; a measurement records what is actually there. Cognitive detection, fall risk and functional ability are usually satisfied by asking, and those are exactly the elements this suite measures. The measured result gives a comparable baseline, and the written screening schedule can then set repeat intervals from what the measurements showed rather than from the calendar.

Medically reviewed by Dr. Gurpreet Singh Padda, MD, MBA, MHP, medical director of Measura. Last reviewed August 20, 2026.