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The annual visit is free but services during the visit may be subject to cost sharing? How can both of these things be true? This cries out for an example.
That is a great point. So in overly simple terms when you have your annual free visit you are limited to that visit type and services associated with it. If you get care beyond that, and your doctor puts the billing code in for additional services, that can result in charges.
For example, in simple terms, at your annual wellness visit you talk to your doctor about a pain in your arm and they run a test, this isn’t on our list of free preventative services (see this page for a list and resources https://obamacarefacts.com/obamacare-preventive-care/), so this part of the visit results in a charge if your doctor bills it as such.
So all this said, if you express to your doctor that you are going in for your free wellness visit and are only seeking eligible preventive services, they should let you know if the services being requested are not eligible.
As the article notes, this can feel like a sort of arbitrary division, and as people we may feel that since we are at the doctor we should be able to address all our issues. While perhaps this is the case, it is more so the case that the “free” visit is limited to specific services.