How Medicare Part B Works

Medicare Part B covers a few specific preventive care examinations, including pelvic exams and Pap smears, mammograms, bone density testing, colorectal and prostate cancer screening, diabetes screening, and glaucoma testing. But except for an initial "wellness examination" within the first six months of enrolling, Medicare Part B does not cover the most valuable overall preventive care procedure: regular, comprehensive physical exams. (Many Medicare Part C (Medicare Advantage Managed Care Plans) do recognize the value of such regular exams and make them part of their coverage.)

Medicare's noncoverage of regular physical exams can put you in a bind. You can get a regular physical exam by paying for the expensive doctor and laboratory work out of your own pocket (if you can afford it). Or you can skip the exam and risk missing the kinds of early disease detection that makes such exams so important.

But there may be a way out of this bind. If you haven't had a thorough physical examination for a while and would like to have Medicare cover one for you, here's how to do so without breaking Medicare rules.
Medicare Part B does cover an examination by your doctor, plus related laboratory work, X-rays, and diagnostic testing, to investigate a particular health problem or complaint. And, like most people over 65, you probably have at least one or more minor physical complaints or problems about which, ordinarily, you wouldn't make a special trip to the doctor. On the other hand, if you had a general physical examination and your doctor asked you about any problems or complaints, you would likely mention these. The trick to getting Medicare to pay for a general physical exam is to make these minor complaints the subject of a doctor visit. This turns the doctor's investigation of these problems -- which can include a fairly broad examination plus laboratory or other diagnostic work -- into a Medicare-covered service, as long as the exam and diagnostics are reasonably related to the physical complaints you have reported.