11/21/2025
Did you know that “preventive visits” and “office visits” serve different purposes so they have to be billed separately?
Here’s a summary of how it works...
1. Preventive visit purpose: annual physical, preventing illness, catching issues early, and setting baselines. Preventative visits may include: screenings (blood pressure, glucose, cholesterol), vaccine review, counseling, STI/colorectal screenings as appropriate, and an overall risk evaluation.
2. Office visit only purpose: to manage a known condition or a new concern. Examples include: new or worsening symptoms, medication changes, test-result review, referrals, follow-up after a hospital stay, or chronic condition check-ins.
--> We want to be up front to make sure our patients understand that if a specific problem is addressed during your preventive visit, then we must bill for an additional office visit for that evaluation. We’ll do our best to be transparent about this at check-in.
To learn more about this and see more useful examples, visit our website: www.primarycaresb.com/visit-types
Questions or ready to schedule? Call us at 574-251-1200. Established patients can also schedule an appointment online or message us in the patient portal.