During this novel coronavirus pandemic, most of us have opted against visiting a doctor’s office or going to the hospital when we had the choice. Fortunately, now that we appear to be coming out of the pandemic, many people recognize the importance of cancer screenings. Health Care Dive reports that people are once against getting breast and colon cancer screenings as well as other important preventive care services.
COVID-19 led millions of Americans to delay care. Preventive care was put on a back burner. The data show drops in cancer screenings of 95 percent or more. And, many hospitals and outpatient clinics lost billions of dollars in revenue.
But, preventive care is important for detecting diseases early on and promoting good health outcomes. Time will tell the consequences for people of skipping cancer screenings and other important services. No one knows yet how many patients will find themselves with later-stage cancers that might have been avoided.
If you haven’t yet scheduled cancer screenings, talk to your doctor about doing so. Medicare pays for an array of preventive care services in full, including:
- an annual wellness visit, which includes advance care planning with your doctor
- the following screenings
- depression,
- alcohol abuse,
- colon cancer
- prostate cancer
- mammogram
- HIV
- annual diabetes screening, for people with hypertension, high cholesterol or a family history of diabetes
- annual cardiovascular screening, to help lower the risk of heart disease.
- weight counseling and
- medical nutrition counseling.
- flu shot , pneumonia hepatitis B vaccines.Medicare covers the shingles vaccine under its Part D drug program.
- For people without a smoking-related illness, it covers the full cost of smoking cessation.
Medicare also covers 80 percent of the cost of screenings for glaucoma, trainings for diabetes self-management, barium enemas to detect colon cancer, and digital rectal exams to detect prostate cancer.
Here’s more from Just Care:
Leave a Reply