These two visits get confused constantly, and the confusion leads people to either skip a valuable benefit or show up expecting a service they will not get. The Welcome to Medicare visit and the Annual Wellness Visit are both preventive benefits, both usually cost you nothing, and both are easy to use once you understand them. The catch that surprises almost everyone is that neither one is a traditional head-to-toe physical exam. Knowing what each visit actually is, and when you are eligible, lets you use them the way they are meant to be used.
I cannot count how many people have told me they went in for their free Medicare physical and got a bill. Almost always it is because they expected a full physical, the doctor addressed an actual health problem during the visit, and that part got billed separately. It is not a scam, it is just how these preventive visits are structured. My advice: know that neither visit is a full physical, ask up front how anything extra will be billed, and specifically request the wellness visit when you schedule. If you want help understanding your preventive benefits, I am glad to walk through them.
The Welcome to Medicare visit
The Welcome to Medicare visit, formally called the Initial Preventive Physical Examination, is a one-time visit available during your first 12 months of having Part B. It is meant to establish a baseline. Your provider reviews your medical and family history, checks basic measurements like height, weight, and blood pressure, reviews your risk factors, discusses screenings and vaccinations you may need, and talks through advance care planning if you wish. It is a single, one-time benefit tied to the beginning of your Part B coverage, so if you want it, use it within that first year.
The Annual Wellness Visit
The Annual Wellness Visit is different. It becomes available after you have had Part B for 12 months, and then it is available once every year going forward. The focus is on prevention and planning: your provider updates your health history, reviews your medications, screens for cognitive issues, and works with you to develop or update a personalized prevention plan. It is a yearly touchpoint designed to keep your preventive care on track and catch risks early, not a comprehensive exam of every system in your body.
Why neither is a full physical
Here is the part that catches people off guard. Neither the Welcome to Medicare visit nor the Annual Wellness Visit is a full physical exam. There is no head-to-toe examination, no comprehensive hands-on assessment of every organ system the way many people remember from a traditional annual physical. These visits are about history, risk assessment, prevention planning, and coordination. If your provider does additional diagnostic work during the visit because of a specific concern, that additional service may be billed separately and could carry cost-sharing. Understanding this ahead of time prevents both disappointment and surprise charges.
What each visit costs
Both the Welcome to Medicare visit and the Annual Wellness Visit are covered at $0 when the provider accepts Medicare assignment, meaning you pay nothing for the visit itself, with no deductible or coinsurance for the covered preventive service. The important caveat is that if the visit turns into treatment or diagnostic work for a specific problem, that portion can be billed as a separate service with normal cost-sharing. So the wellness visit itself is free, but a conversation that turns into managing an active condition may generate a charge for that added service.
Want to understand which preventive benefits you actually have?
Preventive visits are valuable and usually free, but they are easy to misuse. I can help you understand your benefits and make sure your plan gives you good access to preventive care.
Book a Free CallHow to use these visits well
The practical approach is to treat these visits as what they are: prevention and planning appointments. Use the Welcome to Medicare visit early in your first year to set a baseline. Then use the Annual Wellness Visit every year to keep your prevention plan current. If you also need a hands-on physical or evaluation of a specific symptom, understand that is a separate service and ask your provider up front how it will be billed. And when you schedule, tell the office specifically that you want the wellness visit, because if it gets coded as a regular problem visit, you may lose the $0 preventive benefit.
Frequently asked questions