Get Medicare to Cover Your Parent's Physical Exam

Except for an initial "wellness" exam when your parent first enrolls in the program, Medicare Part B doesn't cover regular physical examinations. This penalizes healthy elders who, sensibly, want an annual physical as a preventive measure. Your parent can partially overcome this restriction by scheduling an appointment with her doctor to diagnose any real -- though minor or vague -- physical complaint that she might not normally bother to have checked. The examination about that complaint may cover some of the same ground and may include some of the same tests that a complete physical would.