At Rittenhouse Internal Medicine, we recognize that the health care and medical insurance industries can be confusing to navigate for many of our patients. Our goal is to make the process of seeing a provider as smooth and as simple as possible. Part of that process is ensuring that you, our patients, are aware of the different appointment types that we offer so that the proper appointment is scheduled to fit your needs at a given time. We also recommend reviewing your insurance policy, so that you can be aware of how/if the different appointment types are covered ahead of time to avoid surprises (and large bills!).

“Annual Physicals”, also called “Routine Medical Exams”, “Health Maintenance Exams” or “General Checkups”, are preventive health exams that are typically covered by an insurance provider no more than once a year. The purpose of the annual physical is to is to review a patient’s health history, family history, and social habits, to make sure she is caught up on routine vaccinations and recommended age-appropriate health screenings such as colon cancer screening, cholesterol testing, mammograms, etc. It is also an opportunity for the provider to make specific recommendations that would reduce a patient’s risk of poor health outcomes down the road–such as advising an increase in certain types of exercise, or cutting back on the amount of alcohol a patient is drinking. The goal of this appointment type is to prevent disease by identifying factors in a patient’s history/lifestyle that could put their health in jeopardy if not addressed and modified.

The “Annual Gynecological Exam”, also called a “GYN Exam” or “Women’s Health Exam”, is another type of preventive visit. This type of appointment is also typically covered by insurance providers no more than once annually. It differs from the Annual Physical in its more narrow focus; the exam exclusively focuses on preventing adverse gynecological health outcomes. Items addressed in an annual gyn exam may include cervical cancer screening (the Pap smear), breast cancer screening, birth control/family planning, or preventing/screening for low bone mass.

All visits that do not fit into the above categories are classified as “Problem” visits. Most insurance companies do not put a limit on the number of problem visits that can be scheduled in a calendar year; but they typically will require you to pay a copay for each of these visits (even if the problems are addressed during a preventive visit–which we discourage, due to time constraints). Problem visits (which may be referred to as “Follow up visits”, “Sick visits” or “Annual medication checks”, depending on the reason for the appointment) are made to address one or more specific health issues or symptoms. Problem visits are not preventive health exams, and they are scheduled separately from preventive visits to allow adequate time for evaluation and management of the symptoms prompting the appointment. These may be new, acute symptoms–such as a sore throat, a new rash, or a vaginal discharge–or chronic issues, such as high blood pressure, depression, or managing thyroid medication. Additional testing or medication may be advised; these may or may not be covered by your insurance company (again, reviewing/knowing the details of your insurance plan coverage ahead of time is advised, as we are not privy to these details).

Hopefully this is a helpful guide to scheduling your next appointment with us; our call center staff is always available to help you schedule the correct appointment type if you have any questions or need further clarification.

As March is patient safety month we wanted to share a few ways we work to ensure patient safety in our practice!
Although we are just a little internal medicine office and not a huge hospital, there are still plenty of steps we take to try and keep our patients safe.

1) Employee Training: All of our employees receive various trainings on an annual basis. We provide our staff with training on HIPAA so that they become highly familiar with how to treat private health information. We also host a CPR training for our staff so that we always have employees who are able to provide emergency care. On an as needed basis, our MAs also receive refresher courses on best practice for venipuncture and any other procedures.

2) Processes: As a medical practice we have a few processes in place to ensure patient safety. All of our MA stations have label machines connected to our EMRs that allow our medical assistants to print legible labels for any laboratory samples collected at our practice. This is the best way to reduce any possibility of mislabeled specimens and potentially giving patients incorrect lab results. We also have specific sterilization processes for our different instruments – weather they need to be packaged or cleaned at a different temperature – these processes ensure that instruments we use in the office are not a source of infection for our patients.

3) Equipment: You may have noticed that we have gloves available in all of our exam rooms – gloves are an important barrier to keep our patients safe as well as keep our staff safe! We also have hand sanitizer available all over the building which is our go-to, especially during flu season!

4) Building Safety: There are a few safety measures we have taken to make our facility safer for patients also. Our entryway steps now have treads which makes them much easier to walk on in wet weather; the same goes for our carpeted staircase. During snowstorms, our staff regularly shovels and salts the sidewalk in front of our building and we try to mop our waiting room regularly also to get up any water that had been trekked in so that there are no slips in our waiting room.

Although a lot of these items may seem obvious, they all go a long way in ensuring the safety and well-being of our patients. We review these processes regularly and consider employee and patient input to find any problems or improvements that can be made. Please know that we are always doing our best not only to treat you but also to keep you safe physically and psychologically whenever you visit our practice. Thank you for being our patient and have a safe and happy March!