Year-end patient outreach: why November and December matter and how to run a campaign

Several clocks stop on December 31. Deductibles reset. Quality measure periods close. Some benefit dollars expire. A patient who is due for a visit has a reason to come in now, and the practice has a reason to ask.

Most practices know this. The outreach still does not happen, because nobody has the hours to make the calls. This article explains what changes on January 1 and how to run a campaign in the weeks that remain.

This is not billing, coverage or compliance advice. Check each patient's plan and each program's current rules.

What changes on January 1

Deductibles reset

A deductible is the amount a patient pays for covered services before the plan starts to pay. Many plans count it by calendar year, so it starts again at zero on January 1.

The amounts are large. In the KFF 2026 Employer Health Benefits Survey, 88% of workers with single coverage have a general annual deductible. The average for those workers is $1,955. It is $2,624 at smaller firms and $1,772 at larger firms. And 38% of covered workers are in a plan with a deductible of $2,000 or more.

Medicare resets too. The Part B annual deductible is $283 in 2026.

A patient who has already met the deductible may pay less for a visit in December than for the same visit in January. Many patients do not think about this until someone reminds them. A reminder to book a visit that is already due is useful to them.

Quality measure periods end

The MIPS performance period for 2026 is the calendar year. CMS ties it to the 2028 MIPS payment year. A screening or visit that happens on January 4 counts for next year, not this one.

Many payer quality programs also measure by calendar year. Check each contract for its dates.

The practical point is simple. A care gap that is open on December 31 stays open in this year's results.

Annual wellness visits

Medicare Part B covers a yearly wellness visit once every 12 months. The patient pays nothing if the provider accepts assignment, and the Part B deductible does not apply to the visit itself. A patient's first wellness visit cannot take place within 12 months of Part B enrollment.

The 12-month rule matters for your list. A patient is eligible only if the last wellness visit was more than 12 months ago. Build the list from your own records, and have staff confirm eligibility before the campaign starts.

Flu vaccine

CDC recommends a flu vaccine every season for everyone 6 months and older, with rare exceptions. CDC recommends vaccination by the end of October. It also says vaccination should continue after October for as long as flu viruses are circulating and unexpired vaccine is available.

Many patients have not had the vaccine by now. CDC estimates that 41.6% of adults received a flu vaccine in the 2025-26 season. December outreach can still reach the rest.

Unused benefits

A health flexible spending arrangement (FSA) holds money that can expire. For plan years that begin in 2026, the IRS limit on employee contributions is $3,400. If the plan allows a carryover, the most a patient can carry into the next year is $680. Money that the plan does not let the patient carry over is lost.

Patients with FSA money left often want to use it on care they have put off. The plan decides what counts, not the practice.

Open slots in December

Holiday weeks bring cancellations and schedule changes. A slot that stays empty is lost. A list of patients who are due for care is the fastest way to fill those slots.

Why this outreach does not get done

Calling a list takes time that front-desk staff do not have. Here is an example, with assumed numbers:

600 patients on the list
4 minutes for each call attempt, including dialing, voicemail and a note in the chart
600 x 4 = 2,400 minutes, or 40 staff hours for one attempt each

Many patients do not answer the first call. A second attempt adds more hours. The phones still ring during all of this. So the list sits in a report until January.

This is the work we are doing for practices now. Clark Street Health is running year-end campaigns because much of the outreach that practices need never gets done for lack of staff time. Our agents handle more than 3,000 patient calls a day for hundreds of providers. The cost of each call is a small fraction of the cost of the staff time it replaces.

How to run a year-end campaign

1. Choose one goal

Pick one reason to contact patients. Examples: annual wellness visits, flu vaccine, or one care gap such as an overdue screening. One goal gives you one message and one clear result.

2. Build and approve the list

Pull the list from your EHR or payer gap report. Staff remove patients who should not be contacted and approve the final list. See care gap outreach for how a list becomes a campaign.

3. Set the rules

With patient outreach, your staff set the channel order, the number of attempts, the contact hours and when to stop. Sequence templates for annual wellness visits and flu shots are built in.

4. Decide what goes to staff

The agent books the visit or collects the answer. It writes each outcome to the EHR. It does not give clinical advice, and it does not tell patients what their plan covers. Clinical questions, coverage questions, unusual replies and live transfers go to your staff.

5. Measure

Count the same things every week, so you can compare this campaign with the next one.

Example campaign

This is an example, not a result. The practice and numbers are made up to show the steps.

A primary care practice has 600 patients who are due for an annual wellness visit. Seven weeks remain in the year.

Day 1: text. Each patient gets a text with a way to book or reply.
Wait 3 days. Patients who booked or declined leave the sequence.
Day 4: AI call. The agent calls patients who did not reply, within the contact hours the practice set. It offers open slots and books the visit.
Day 8: second call. One more attempt at a different time of day.
Staff handoff. Patients with clinical questions, coverage questions or unusual replies go to staff with the conversation attached. Patients who never answered go on a list for staff to review.

Measure three numbers against the list of 600:

Reached: patients who replied to a text or spoke with the agent.
Booked: patients with a visit on the schedule.
Handed off: patients sent to staff, with the reason.

Also count patients who opted out and patients who were never reached. Together, these numbers tell you whether to change the message, the hours or the number of attempts.

Start now

December 31 does not move. A campaign that starts this week has time for a text, two calls and a staff follow-up. A campaign that starts in mid-December does not.

To see a year-end campaign for your practice, book a demo. You can also read more about patient outreach automation.