The Affordable Care Act places a heavy emphasis on preventative care. Last year the Department of Health and Human Services put forth new rules which required all health insurance companies to cover specific preventative services for woman.
These included mammograms, colonoscopies, blood pressure checks, and childhood immunizations. These services were to be provided by the health insurance companies without charging a co-pay or making the service subject to the deductible. In other words, these services were to be provided free of charge to members of an insurance plan and to those whose medical care was proveded through Medicare.
This years rules add benefits for women
On Monday, HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius announced new rules which require all new health insurance plans to provide women with the following preventative services:
well-woman visits;
screening for gestational diabetes;
human papillomavirus (HPV) DNA testing for women 30 years and older;
sexually-transmitted infection counseling;
human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) screening and counseling;
FDA-approved contraception methods and contraceptive counseling;
breastfeeding support, supplies, and counseling; and
domestic violence screening and counseling.
The rules cover new polices with plan years beginning August 1, 2011. The services enumerated above are to be provided without cost sharing. This means the health insurance company may not charge subscribes to these plans either a co-pay or deductible.
Certain cost containment measures are included in the regulations. For instance, plans may charge some cost sharing if a patient chooses a brand name drug for which a comparable generic is available.
Exception is allowed for religious institutions
An amendment to the requirement that preventative care include access to contraceptives was announced to allow religious institutions which provide health insurance coverage to their employees to decide whether or not they want to include contraceptive coverage.
The amendment to allow religious institutions to make this choice is similar to the regulations which are currently in place in most of the 28 states which already mandate contraceptives as part of preventative service for woman.
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