When you feel healthy, going to a doctor is the last thing on your mind. But with health insurance, the funny thing is, you get the most health coverage when you are well. And when you are diagnosed with an illness, you land up paying out of your pocket costs.
So, how can you stay healthy? The first step is not to wait until you’re sick to see a doctor. Regular check-ups are an excellent way to prevent you and your employees from falling sick in the first place.
These regular screenings and check-ups help your physician pick up on serious problems, as well as help paint a more accurate picture of your overall health. If you don’t visit your doctor when you’re healthy, there’s no way to know what your ‘normal’ is. Let’s look into what is considered preventive care and learn more.
What Is Considered Preventive Care?
So, what is preventive health care? In essence, preventive health care consists of health care services that help you stay healthy or screen for illnesses early on. How it works is by detecting health problems early when they’re most treatable, before you have symptoms or fall sick, or avoid potential health problems.
Examples of preventive care include proper diet, exercise, and a healthy lifestyle as well as lab tests, physical exams, flu shots, and regular screenings for stuff like blood pressure or cancer screenings.
What Is Not Considered As Preventive Care?
It’s not considered preventive health care when you discuss current illnesses or new medical concerns with a doctor. This is known as diagnostic care.
Here, more than focusing on disease prevention, the doctor is giving you a cure for something. For instance, a follow-up mammogram - it’s checking for something found during a routine or preventive mammogram. Some more examples include additional primary care visits, visits to specialists, alternative therapies, and more.
Difference Between Preventive Care Vs Diagnostic Care:
As you’ve read, the differences are well laid out. Here, you’ll delve a little deeper to understand what is covered under preventive care and what isn’t. You can also understand which covered preventive services are suitable for you.
A few of what is covered under preventive care, and what’s not?
1. Routine physical exams - Screenings that are prevention-focused, not problem-focused.
- What’s covered:
1. Age and gender-appropriate tests
2. Medications
3. Past family, social, and medical history
- What’s not covered:
1. New health issues you discuss when you visit your doctor
2. A diagnosis that needs addressing, like headaches, rashes, or blood pressure
2. Immunizations - immunizations ensure protection against several serious diseases.
- What’s covered:
1. MMR (measles, mumps, and rubella)
2. Hepatitis A and B
3. Flu vaccinations
- What’s not covered:
1. Vaccines for cases like rabies, malaria, or typhoid
3. Screenings - Health screenings or tests based on your health status, gender, age, and more.
- What’s covered:
1. Cholesterol screening for adults who have high-risk factors
2. Blood pressure screening
3. Breast cancer screening for women over the age of 40
- What’s not covered:
1. Things like mineral and vitamins test to check for muscle and bone function and development
2. Say abnormalities are found in the mammogram, then follow-up procedures and additional tests
Why Fix Your System When It’s Functioning Optimally?
Although you regularly drive your car to work or errands, you still frequently check the oil level, air pressure, and more. Why? To ensure your well-oiled machine runs smoothly.
Similarly, preventive care helps you detect health problems early on, avoid them altogether or increase your chance for a better cure and treatment.
A preventive checkup is worth your time and effort because:
- Preventive screenings help catch any conditions at the onset or early on, which leads to improved health outcomes and better care.
- An estimated 1.28 billion adults aged 30-79 years worldwide have hypertension. Several diseases like blood pressure are extremely common with the lifestyle people lead. With the help of preventive screenings and the recommended preventive care plan, such conditions are treatable and preventive in numerous cases.
- Preventive screenings ensure the good health you have today continues well into the future. Simple steps like checking for health problems along with a mix of proper diet and exercise will ensure you’re on top of your health.
- A preventive checkup covers all the bases, from health conditions to managing stress to eating properly, ample exercise, and improving overall lifestyle choices.
- With the right preventive care like proper immunization such as flu shots and pneumonia, will help keep you and those around you healthy.
The best of all - it’s free! You read that right! Loop’s group health insurance plans include preventive healthcare cover that accounts for various facets like doctor consultations, disease management programs, the availability of medical advisors to answer all health issues, mental health consults, nutrition sessions, engaging fitness classes, and more to ensure your stay healthy, happy, and productive.
Loop Health: Extending Preventive Care To 60,000+ Employees:
Loop Health makes group health insurance plans even better by folding in a ton of preventative services into the plan - without having to pay extra for it!
That’s right, all you need to do is find a session or a doctor in your health plan.
Before you go, don’t forget to check out other blogs for more such information about group health insurance and preventive health services available to you and your team.
