Preventive Care After 65: How It Is Decided

Short answer

Prevention after 65 covers blood pressure, metabolic and cholesterol monitoring, cancer screening decisions, bone health, immunisations, vision and hearing, mood, memory and fall risk.

Which of those apply to you depends on your history, your other conditions and what you want from treatment — which is why we do not publish an age-by-age schedule as advice.

National bodies publish the underlying recommendations; the references below are the right place to read them.

Presence orders laboratory testing and screening locally and quotes the cash price before anything is ordered.

Some screening and all immunisation happen in person or at a facility, not on a video call.

The short answer

Preventive care after 65 is a review, repeated over time, of a defined set of areas: blood pressure, blood sugar and cholesterol; cancer screening still worth doing; bone health; immunisations; vision, hearing and dental; mood, memory and sleep; fall risk; and whether every medication is still earning its place. What applies to you is individual, and some screening is reasonably stopped at a certain point — that is a conversation, not an omission.

What gets reviewed

Area	What a visit is looking at
Blood pressure	Home readings over time, not a single clinic number
Blood sugar and cholesterol	Whether monitoring is due and whether the plan is working
Cancer screening	Which screening still applies, and when stopping is reasonable
Bone health	Fracture risk, and whether testing or treatment is indicated
Immunisations	What is due per the national adult schedule, given locally
Vision, hearing, dental	Whether referrals are due — these are outside our scope to test
Memory, mood, sleep	Changes over time, described by you and by family
Falls	Balance, footwear, home hazards and medications that add risk
Medications	Whether each one is still needed at the current dose

Why we do not publish an age-by-age checklist

Screening recommendations depend on age, sex, personal and family history, existing conditions and life expectancy, and national guidance is revised as evidence changes. A generic table published on a practice website invites people to self-assign tests they do not need and skip ones they do. The references below are the current primary sources; what applies to you is worked out in a visit.

What happens virtually and what does not

Virtual: deciding what is due, ordering it, reviewing results, adjusting the plan, medication review.
In person or at a facility: blood draws, imaging, bone density, immunisations and any examination component.
Outside our scope entirely: eye examinations, hearing tests and dental care — these are referred.

Testing is ordered locally and priced before you agree to it. How labs and imaging work with virtual care sets out the sequence, and member lab and imaging pricing covers cost.

Prevention that is not a test

Strength and balance work, which does more for fall risk than most interventions — see fall prevention.
Deprescribing: removing a medication that has outlived its purpose is preventive care.
Knowing your own red-flag list and who to call, so a problem is not sat on over a weekend.

This page explains how prevention is decided. It is not a recommendation for you and does not replace guidance from your own provider.

Questions people ask

Do I still need cancer screening after 75?

Sometimes yes and sometimes no — it depends on the screening, your health and what a positive result would lead to. That is a genuine decision to make with a provider rather than a rule to apply. The references below hold the national recommendations.

Is a yearly wellness visit the same as preventive care?

A visit is an event; prevention is a sequence — deciding what is due, getting it done, acting on the result and tracking it over time. The visit is where the decisions are made.

Does Presence bill Medicare for preventive visits?

We publish no payer or Medicare participation claim. Membership is paid directly to the practice and is not insurance. Ask us directly if payer participation affects your decision.

Preventive care after 65