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Preventive medicine is often one of the most important services physicians render to their patients. Medicare and many third-party payers have recently increased their willingness to reimburse providers for these visits, particularly for annual visits. Most payers recognize that by catching problems at an early stage through annual visits, they can minimize/avoid insurance payments for more expensive methods of treatment (e.g., hospitalization and surgery). As of January 2005, Medicare began paying for an initial preventive physical examination (IPPE) for a patient within the first six months of him or her becoming a Medicare Part B participant.