All About Well Visits

Wellness Visits

Did you know that regular well-child visits are one of the most important things you can do to keep your child healthy? Preventive care promotes healthy growth and development from infancy through adolescence. These visits give us the opportunity to monitor your child’s physical, emotional, and developmental progress, provide recommended immunizations and screenings, and offer guidance tailored to your child’s age and needs.

At a well-child visit, your child may receive a physical exam, growth measurements, recommended immunizations, preventive screenings, and age-appropriate guidance. These visits are also a valuable time to talk with your pediatrician about nutrition, sleep, safety, school, behavior, and emotional wellness. School, sports, camp, and other routine physical forms may also be completed at the visit when appropriate.

AAP Recommended Visit Schedule and Screenings

At Cornerstone, we follow the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) recommended schedule for well-child visits, preventive screenings, and immunizations. Regular visits throughout childhood and adolescence help children stay on track with healthy growth, development, immunizations, and age-appropriate screenings.

Depending on your child’s age, recommended screenings may include photo vision screening, hearing screening, developmental screening, autism screening, depression screening, postpartum depression screening, and other preventive assessments. These screenings help us identify concerns early, support the whole child, and provide guidance for the whole family.

Because these appointments fill quickly, we recommend calling our office 4–6 months in advance to schedule your child’s next well visit. Planning ahead helps your child stay current with preventive care and helps ensure that school, sports, camp, and other routine forms can be completed on time.

Regular well-child visits help build a trusted relationship between your child, your family, your pediatrician, and the Cornerstone team. By working together and staying connected through each stage of growth, we can support your child’s physical, emotional, and developmental health in the best possible way.

AAP Well Visit Schedule

Additional Concerns and Insurance Coverage

Well-child visits are designed to focus on preventive care, growth, development, and routine health guidance. We understand that questions and concerns often come up during these visits, and we always want to support your child’s needs.

When Additional Concerns Are Addressed

If your pediatrician is asked to evaluate or manage concerns that are outside the scope of the preventive visit, such as new symptoms, illness, injury, chronic medical problems, medication management, or more detailed concerns about behavior, sleep, eating, mood, or development, a separate problem-focused office visit may be billed in addition to the wellness visit.

Insurance Coverage

Many insurance plans cover preventive well-child visits at no cost to families, but coverage rules vary by plan. When additional concerns are addressed during the same appointment, your insurance may process that portion of the visit as a separate office visit. This may result in out-of-pocket costs such as a copay, deductible, and/or coinsurance, depending on your specific insurance benefits.

Making Sure Your Concerns Get the Time They Deserve

We want to give each concern the attention it deserves. Depending on the number or complexity of concerns discussed, there may not always be enough time to fully address everything during a well-child visit. When needed, our team will gladly help schedule a follow-up appointment so we can continue the discussion and provide the most thoughtful care possible.

Reach Out and Read at Cornerstone Pediatrics

A book. A bond.

At Cornerstone we are fortunate to partner with Reach Out and Read, a program committed to integrating reading into pediatric practices, advising families about the importance of reading with their children, and share books that serve as a catalyst for healthy childhood development.

At every well visit from 6 mo -5 years, we give each child a new, developmentally-appropriate book to take home with them. We offer books in both English and Spanish different. Books can even be useful for families who don’t read—we encourage them to talk about the story that the pictures tell. Many of the families that Reach Out and Read serves do not have any books at home. At the end of the program, every Reach Out and Read child has a home library of books—each given with the advice to families that they are their child’s first and most important teacher. As they read and spend time together, families form lasting connections and children learn new skills that serve them well throughout their lives.