welcome to the organic green doctor blog

i am a family physician who was diagnosed with
early mild cognitive impairment(mci) amnestic type on december 21, 2010
this is a precursor to alzheimers disease
because of this diagnosis i have opted to stop practicing medicine
this blog will be about my journey with this disease
please feel free to follow me along this path
i will continue blogging on organic gardening, green living,
solar power, rainwater collection, and healthy living
i will blog on these plus other things noted to be interesting

Thursday, September 2, 2010

welcome to medicare physical, rattlesnake cakes

WELCOME TO MEDICARE PHYSICAL
medicare covers a welcome to medicare physical in the first 12 months you are
signed up
well it is not a physical like most physicals that you do when you go to the doctor
there is no physical exam done with this visit
medicare just calls it a physical exam

medicare pays for the welcome to medicare visit(thats what it should be called)
minus 20% copay    no deductible applies to this visit
coinsurance usually picks up the 20%

this visit is particularly good for some one that has not had regular physicals
and does not see a doctor at regular visits
find that most of my medicare patients are my established patients and have
most of the stuff done already
but again for some people it is good to do especially if they have been
ignoring their health care

in our group we have one person that does them as medicare is particular about
the documentation and coding  associated with this visit
we have 89 family doctors and 20 internist

what it covers  is a good medical history, social history, medication review,
preventative care needs, psychological history, review of advance directive and

usually shots-flu, pneumonia, maybe hepatitis b shot, probably not shingles shot, mammogram, bone density, maybe ekg, maybe ultrasound of aorta if high risk for aneurysm, psa(prostate cancer test), blood sugar, maybe cholesterol screen

medicare covers colonoscopy, fecal blood test, digital rectal exam, breast exam
and pelvic exam
the above exams are done at separate visits as may not cover them if done with
the welcome to medicare visit
some people on medicare hmos and medicare advantage plans are allowed
an annual physical exam like we think of what a  physical exam should be

so would i recommend you do this?    yes   its a one time visit
if the paperwork is done right you would have little cost to you and a new
baseline of medical information is obtained for the future

RATTLESNAKE CAKES
my nephew is visiting here from out of state
we took my nurse and her husband out to dinner for her birthday
we went to a restaurant that makes rattlesnake cakes(like crab cake not regular cake)
we all tasted the cakes
my nephew was not convinced that it would be good to do that
but he finally took  a taste
it acutally tastes good
this chef is good at using the right spices herbs etc to bring out the flavor  of food
it did have a bite to it  though

the organicgreen doctor

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