What Is Preventive Care? And What Are the Benefits of Preventive Care?
Preventive care plays an essential role in maintaining a healthy lifestyle.
It focuses on early detection, prevention, and management of potential health problems.
What exactly is preventive care, and how does it benefit people? Does insurance cover it? Does it cost a lot?
Read on to learn preventive care, why it matters, and how it works.
What is Preventive Care?
Preventive care involves identifying and preventing potentially serious illnesses before they become severe or chronic.
This way, health risks can be detected and managed early, improving health and reducing healthcare expenses.
Preventive Healthcare Services
Preventive care includes these services.
1. Annual Check-up
Your Primary Care Provider (PCP) examines your physical and emotional health, looking for early signs of illness.
Read our article on Annual Physicals
2. Flu Shot
Most health plans cover this vaccination against specific flu virus strains.
3. Cancer Screenings
Early detection of cancer increases the chances of a successful treatment.
- Mammograms for breast cancer.
- Pap tests for cervical cancer.
- Colonoscopies for colorectal cancer.
4. Immunizations
Childhood immunizations (examples: hepatitis A and B, chicken pox, measles, mumps, rubella, polio).
What Are the Benefits of Preventive Care?
Preventive care aims to keep you healthy.
Regular checkups and tests help your doctor catch problems early.
Preventive care provides the following benefits:
- Most preventive care is free to you as part of your health coverage. Most health plans cover preventive services like shots and screening tests – at no cost.
- You’ll be able to get care and treatment sooner if you detect medical problems, illnesses, and diseases early.
- You can stay focused on your health goals with routine care.
What’s Not Considered As Preventive Care?
Remember, preventive care happens before an issue arises.
- Diagnostic tests and screenings: Tests and screenings performed to diagnose or examine specific health concerns are not considered preventive care – these are usually performed when an indication of a problem might exist.
- Additional primary care visits: Although one annual checkup is usually covered as preventive care, additional visits during the same calendar year are not considered preventive.
- Specialist visits: Specialist visits for specific health concerns or conditions, such as gastroenterologists, orthopedists, neurologists, or podiatrists, do not qualify as preventive care. These visits focus on managing existing health issues rather than preventing them.
- Alternative therapies: Alternative therapies like chiropractic, massage, and acupuncture are not considered preventive care. They’re considered separate and might have different coverage.
- Disease-specific screenings: Each health insurance plan covers these tests differently, depending on the person’s risk factors.
What is the Preventive Cost?
Most health plans cover preventive care at 100%.
Almost all insurance plans cover preventive care, such as screenings, vaccinations, and annual check-ups, at no cost or with minimal out-of-pocket expenses.
Make sure you understand your insurance coverage for preventive care.
Preventive Care vs. Primary Care – The Difference
There’s a lot of overlap between preventive and primary care, but some differences exist.
Preventive Care: As discussed, preventive care identifies potential health risks before they become serious – usually through screenings, vaccinations, and early detection.
The purpose of preventive care is to keep people healthy and prevent any diseases from ever happening.
Primary Care: Primary care provides comprehensive and ongoing care to people throughout their healthcare journey.
It covers regular check-ups, chronic condition management, acute illness treatment, and overall health maintenance.
Patients and their primary care providers (PCPs) build long-term relationships in primary care.
Preventive Diagnostic Centers
Supporting preventive care is what preventive diagnostic centers do. To detect potential health problems before they become serious, these centers offer screenings, tests, and diagnostic procedures.
Thorough Screenings: These centers provide comprehensive screenings that examine many aspects of health, including cardiovascular health, cancer screenings, bone density assessments, and more.
Advanced Technologies: These centers have advanced diagnostic technologies, allowing for accurate and efficient assessments. The preventive diagnostic centers provide a comprehensive range of services, from X-rays to ultrasounds to laboratory tests.
Medical Experts: They are staffed with experienced healthcare professionals specializing in preventive care.
Finding A Health Checkup Near Me
Here’s what you can do:
- Find what you’re looking for on Google.
- Search for terms such as “health checkup,” “annual health checkup near me,” or “preventive health screening.”
- To narrow down your search results, include your location.
- Check out local hospital websites, clinics, or diagnostic centers for health checkups.
- To find nearby healthcare providers, check online resources.
Conclusion
Preventive care protects your most valuable asset: your health.
Make sure you keep up with your health and actively participate in it.
Schedule your health check-up today.
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