Medicare is designed to help pay medical bills for injury or illness and some routine screening tests. It will not pay for everything. Some services are not covered, others may not be medically necessary. Some of the non-covered services are:
- Routine exams or "annual exams" and tests directly related to those exams
- Routine foot care
- Routine dental services
- Routine eye exams
- Routine hearing tests for prescribing or fitting hearing aids
- Cosmetic surgery, unless it is needed because of an injury or to improve the function of a deformed part of the body
At times, doctors may treat a specific problem or condition during your annual exam. The part of the exam spent on that problem can be billed as a separate charge. You will see a bill for two charges made on the same day.
1. A charge for the
annual part of the visit and,
2. A charge for the
treatment part of the visit.
The doctor can bill you for:
- The non-covered annual part of the visit and,
- Any other non-covered service done with the exam, such as a routine chest x-ray or routine cholesterol test.