Staff Photo by Laura-Chase McGehee/Chattanooga Times Free Press
Dillon Moree, 5, shakes hands with Dr. Chip Harris after Harris finishes examining Moree’s mother, Erika Moree.Every year, Dr. Chip Harris sees a good number of his privately insured patients for an annual wellness visit, but his Medicare patients are much less frequent visitors for a service that has been free since last year.
Only a little more than 3 percent of Tennesseans eligible for the visit received one in the first five months this year, while a little more than 4 percent of eligible Georgians used the service, according to a report released Monday by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services.
Alabama had one of the lowest percentages of annual visits, at 1.4 percent.
Nationwide, 3.6 percent of those eligible visited a doctor for the service.
“People don’t like to come to the doctor when they’re not sick,” said Harris, who practices family medicine at Erlanger South Family Medicine Practice. “But these visits can identify important issues that have not been previously diagnosed — issues that are silent until you drop dead.”