Patient Satisfaction with Medicare Annual Wellness Visits Administered by a Clinical Pharmacist Practitioner

In accordance with the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, Medicare provides coverage for annual wellness visits (AWVs) to eligible beneficiaries, which focus on preventative services, furnish personalized preventative health plans, and direct appropriate referrals. These visits may be conducted by a physician or another licensed practitioner working under the direct supervision of a physician. In North Carolina, pharmacists licensed as clinical pharmacist practitioners (CPPs) may perform and bill for AWVs, but there are limited data on patient satisfaction with pharmacists serving in this advanced role.

To (a) investigate patient satisfaction with and perception of an initial Medicare AWV administered by a CPP in an academic internal medicine clinic and (b) examine the relationship between patient satisfaction and the number of interventions or referrals made during an AWV.

All established patients of an academic internal medicine clinic aged 66 years and older were eligible for AWVs with a CPP, and those completing an AWV with a CPP were eligible for inclusion in this study. Patient satisfaction with the CPP and AWV was assessed by a telephone satisfaction questionnaire administered after the visit by a pharmacy student not affiliated with the clinic.

Forty-six patients were included in this study. Patients rated their satisfaction with the CPP at a mean of 4.7 and with the visit at a mean of 4.6 on a Likert scale ranging from 1 to 5, where 1 was "very dissatisfied" and 5 was "very satisfied." Using a Likert scale of 1 to 5, where 1 was "strongly disagree" and 5 was "strongly agree," patients responded with a mean of 4.4 that they were comfortable discussing their health information with a CPP and a mean of 4.1 that they were just as comfortable discussing their health information for this visit with a CPP as with their primary care physician.

Overall, patients were very satisfied with the CPP and AWVs and felt comfortable with CPPs as the providers of this service. As such, this study demonstrates that through Medicare AWVs, pharmacists can provide direct patient care and contribute to team-based initiatives.

No outside funding supported this study, and the authors have no conflicts of interest to declare. Study concept and design were contributed by Cavanaugh and Shilliday, along with Sherrill. The data were collected by Sherrill and Shilliday and interpreted by Sherrill, Cavanaugh, and Shilliday. The manuscript was written and revised by Sherrill, Cavanaugh, and Shilliday. This work was presented at the ASHP Annual Meeting in Las Vegas, Nevada, on December 3, 2012.