Your guesses might be right, but most likely you are talking about the questionnaires about your medical history and what's called the "review of systems".

In the US, medicare and most other insurances require those questions be asked every visit, however stupid that feels. Since your doctor may only get 10 minutes face to face with you, most of us will have an assistant or a paper ask those questions, so that we can say it was done but still have as much time as possible to talk about the more meaningful stuff.

Some places do it better than others. Usually, though, the form is hard to follow and photocopied to the point of total illegibility.