WELL Seniors Act Expands Medicare Wellness Visits to Include Balance Screening and Telehealth Starting 2026

The WELL Seniors Act of 2025 is tackling one of the biggest risks for older adults—falls—while making preventative care easier to access. Starting January 1, 2026, this bill significantly upgrades the Medicare Annual Wellness Visit (AWV), making it mandatory for providers to screen for balance and fall risk. Think of it as a much-needed tune-up for folks 65 and up, focusing on keeping them vertical and active.

The New, Improved Check-Up: Balance and Beyond

Currently, the AWV is useful, but this bill pushes it into the modern era. The biggest change is the addition of mandatory balance screening. Falls are a huge deal, often leading to serious injuries and long recovery times. By requiring this screening during the visit, the bill ensures that beneficiaries at risk get immediate referrals for treatment. This is a clear win for proactive health management, shifting the focus from treating injuries to preventing them in the first place.

Beyond physical health, the bill also requires providers to explicitly consider a wider range of "social determinants of health" (SDOH). This means the doctor or provider isn't just looking at your blood pressure; they're checking if you have stable housing, enough food, and reliable transportation. If you’re a senior struggling to get groceries or make it to appointments, this visit is supposed to flag those issues and connect you to local resources. It acknowledges that health isn't just what happens in the clinic—it’s what happens in your community and your home.

Who Can Give the Visit, and How

Access is getting a major boost here. As of 2026, the list of professionals who can conduct the AWV expands beyond doctors and nurses to include physical therapists, occupational therapists, and pharmacists. This is a practical move that recognizes the expertise of these professionals, especially PTs and OTs, who are already experts in mobility and function. For seniors in areas with doctor shortages, this widens the net of available providers.

And speaking of access, the bill officially greenlights telehealth for the Annual Wellness Visit starting in 2026. For those who live in rural areas, have limited mobility, or just find it tough to get to a clinic, being able to complete this important preventative visit virtually is a game-changer. It respects people's time and saves them the hassle of travel for what is primarily a discussion and screening service.

The Provider Incentive: Getting Paid for Being Thorough

To make sure providers actually incorporate these new elements, the bill offers a financial carrot. If a provider includes the new balance screening plus at least two other required elements of the AWV (like medication review or health risk assessment), they get an extra payment equal to 10 percent of the standard service fee. This bonus is meant to incentivize comprehensive care rather than a rushed, check-the-box visit. However, Medicare will be footing the bill for these bonus payments, meaning taxpayers will cover the increased cost of these more thorough visits.

What Happens Next: Education and Data

The Secretary of Health and Human Services (HHS) has a lot of homework under this bill. They are required to launch a national outreach campaign within one year to inform beneficiaries—especially low-income and rural seniors—about these expanded services. They also have to publish a detailed report analyzing how often people are actually using the AWV, broken down by state and provider type. This data collection is crucial because it will help policymakers figure out why some seniors aren't utilizing this free preventative care and how to fix the system. It’s an administrative lift, but it’s necessary to ensure the program actually reaches the people who need it most.