Annual Medicare Wellness Visit: Advanced Nurse Practitioner Perceptions and Practices

Advanced Practice Nurses (APNs) can contribute to health prevention efforts with older adults by utilizing a health risk appraisal (HRA) during the Medicare Annual Wellness Visit. This study examined APN perceptions and practices concerning use of HRAs during Annual Wellness Visits (N = 51). Results indicate that respondents agree it is important to collaboratively identify risks and develop a personalized prevention plan, but only a small percentage (7.8%) use HRA data to do so. Reported concerns include reimbursement and time; further work on how to best integrate HRAs into APN practice to enhance prevention efforts with older adults is critical.