Difference between annual physical or new patient visit with new doctor?

[Kassia]

DH and I are switching primary care doctors.  When I called to schedule our first appointments, the woman I spoke with asked if we wanted annual physicals or appointments to establish ourselves as patients.  We both need physicals and that's covered as preventative care by insurance so I told her we wanted physicals, but now I'm wondering if there's any difference.  

 

[regentrude]

With any physician I have seen, establishing care for new patient involves a longer appointment. 

[Kassia]

3 minutes ago, regentrude said:

With any physician I have seen, establishing care for new patient involves a longer appointment. 

that's what I was wondering.  The only thing I could find online is that they spend more time reviewing history.  DH has already met his out of pocket for the year, so it wouldn't cost him anything to do established over physical.  

ETA - because he's already met his out of pocket, he's also scheduling appointments with dermatology and cardiology for check-ups, so maybe that's enough.  He's never met his out of pocket before (it's very high), so we're definitely trying to get everything covered while we can.  He's also due for screening colonoscopy this year so that will be taken care of as well.  And he's being monitored due to recent diagnosis of prostate cancer caught early.  

Edited April 4 by Kassia

[prairiewindmomma]

A physical covers a limited scope of evaluation. A new patient appointment covers all of your medical history and issues and a review of medications. I am surprised she offered a physical appointment. 

[regentrude]

33 minutes ago, Kassia said:

that's what I was wondering.  The only thing I could find online is that they spend more time reviewing history.  DH has already met his out of pocket for the year, so it wouldn't cost him anything to do established over physical.  

I am surprised they offer appointments for physicals for new patients without establishing care.

[Kassia]

6 minutes ago, prairiewindmomma said:

A physical covers a limited scope of evaluation. A new patient appointment covers all of your medical history and issues and a review of medications. I am surprised she offered a physical appointment. 

 

2 minutes ago, regentrude said:

I am surprised they offer appointments for physicals for new patients without establishing care.

This is what we've always done.  We've always started at new practices with our yearly physicals, so I thought that was common.

Do you think it's better for DH to go with establishing care if he's not on any meds and already seeing GI, urologist, cardiologist, and dermatologist this year?  I'm wondering if just the physical is enough in this case.  

Edited April 4 by Kassia

[Arcadia]

5 minutes ago, Kassia said:

This is what we've always done.  We've always started at new practices with our yearly physicals, so I thought that was common.

If the primary care doctors are in the same medical group, our insurance won’t pay for an establishing care kind of appointment. The insurance would pay if we are switching from one medical group to another.
My kids and I have primary care doctors in more than one medical group because we have a walk in clinic 10mins walk away from our home for one of the medical group. Insurance is okay with that. They paid for the establishing care visit when we met our new primary care doctor in the other medical group.

I have medical history so for my case, establishing care would involve the physical plus a more thorough discussion of medical history as well as plans going forward. For my DS19, he has no medical history and the establishing care visit was his annual physical, completing required vaccinations and nothing to follow up on. 

[Pawz4me]

Since IIRC both of you have some chronic issues I'd go for the establishing care appointments, which I think will get you more time to go over things. IME physicals nowadays tend to be very cut-and-dried, and if you talk about anything beyond the very basic stuff you get charged extra anyway. Having more time to go over things is especially important if this provider is in a different network than any of the specialists either of you see. If they're in the same network and can see your electronic stuff then it's maybe not quite so important to have the extra time.

[prairiewindmomma]

If they scheduled you for a physical, go for it, but dont be surprised if they bill you for new patient. You can get your labs etc. all done for sure with the physical appointment.

Fwiw, I have 6-8 specialists I also see. That’s my norm. Those areas are briefly covered….eg “I have a rheumatologist, Dr. x of abc, who handled my (list of diagnoses). Dr. X prescribes (that part of the medicine list). I also have a hematologist, Dr. Y, because (list issues). They have me on (that part of the med list). And so on…. Your primary should be getting cc’d on labs and relevant tests—you use them as additional set of eyes on the whole big picture of you rather than a niche. Because I get a crapton of regular bloodwork, rarely does the primary want more…and when they do, I just take that lab order to my usual vampire so I dont have to get re-stuck and I dont have to pay an extra lab draw fee. It’s just another couple of vials to add to the stack.

[Bambam]

The past two times I got a new doctor, I had to have a new patient appointment first. It was long too - maybe 30-45 minutes. Complete going over your medical history, any issues, etc, etc.  Then they set me up for a well patient annual checkup - which involved going to the lab early one morning for lab work. Well checkup was that afternoon or next day.  I request a couple of extra labs (Vitamin D levels is one) which aren't typical. 

Here in our small town, it is not unusual to have to wait 2-3 months to get into a new doctor for your new patient appointment. They will not see you before that appointment. 

[Kassia]

1 hour ago, Pawz4me said:

If they're in the same network and can see your electronic stuff then it's maybe not quite so important to have the extra time.

Yes, same network where they can see all of our history electronically.  

 

36 minutes ago, Bambam said:

 

Here in our small town, it is not unusual to have to wait 2-3 months to get into a new doctor for your new patient appointment. They will not see you before that appointment. 

I've been trying to get us in with this doctor for a couple of years - he rarely takes new patients.  This time we got special permission from the doctor, but it's a six month wait for our first appointment.  The woman I spoke with at the office was surprisingly nice and did say if we need something before then, she'd try to get us in but probably couldn't.  I wouldn't expect them to see us before we were established with either the new patient visit or physical.  Fingers crossed that we finally get a good primary care doctor.  Mine have been horrible.  DH had a good one, but he retired.  

[kbutton]

9 minutes ago, Kassia said:

Yes, same network where they can see all of our history electronically.  

 

I've been trying to get us in with this doctor for a couple of years - he rarely takes new patients.  This time we got special permission from the doctor, but it's a six month wait for our first appointment.  The woman I spoke with at the office was surprisingly nice and did say if we need something before then, she'd try to get us in but probably couldn't.  I wouldn't expect them to see us before we were established with either the new patient visit or physical.  Fingers crossed that we finally get a good primary care doctor.  Mine have been horrible.  DH had a good one, but he retired.  

I would take whatever you can get but realize you might be charged more if it turns into a thorough visit.

I like my primary doc, but I don’t necessarily feel like I get coordination of care. I think that’s a dying art. He is much better (and nicer) than who I’ve had in the past though, and I think he is up-to-date. 

[barnwife]

I can tell you that the medical system I work for offers both types of appointments. We schedulers are instructed that if a patient calls to schedule a new patient appointment and they are due for a wellness, we are to schedule it as a wellness exam, but put in the appointment notes that it's a wellness and new patient appointment. Somehow, for our system, that allows our practitioners to do both in one appointment. , 

If they aren't due for a wellness, we have to see if they have another medical need to be seen. If they do, we schedule the appointment for that, again adding the new patient tag to the notes for the appointment. Scheduling a straight new patient is a last resort for us. In my year or working for this local healthcare system, I can't remember scheduling any appointments that way.

So...I'd go with whatever your medical system recommends. Also, yes, our providers see patients without a new patient appointment or wellness on the books. Visiting from OOT and have a sore throat? Come on in! New to the area and want to have (insert medical issue here) looked at? We'd be glad to schedule you.

Of course, everything varies from system to system/practice to practice.