Read on to find out what other benefits are offered by Medicare for preventative screenings and visits, including ovarian cancer screenings.
Medicare Preventative Visits
“Medicare offers an annual wellness visit as a preventive health benefit that was started in 2011,” says Keith Lind, Senior Strategic Policy Advisor in AARP’s Public Policy Institute. “The purpose of the AWV, which is not considered a physical examination, is to develop or update a personalized prevention plan and to promote the use of evidence-based preventive services.” As part of the AWV, a healthcare provider conducts a health risk assessment and records your medical and social history, gives you a simple vision test, offers certain screening tests like your risk for depression, and takes a handful of biometric measurements, like height, weight, and blood pressure. Besides the AWV, Medicare covers many more preventive services at no cost to the consumer, such as breast cancer screening, colorectal cancer screening, prostate cancer screening. “Many preventive treatments are covered 100%,” says Alison Reeves, Press Officer for the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services. See Medicare’s guide to preventive services, and here’s a list of the preventive services and screenings.
Ovarian cancer screening
Certain gynecological health screenings are covered by Medicare for all females, including Pap Tests for women on an annual or every 24-month basis, depending on cervical and vaginal cancer risk. As for ovarian cancer screening, there has been a lot of research to develop a screening test for ovarian cancer, but there hasn’t been much success so far. “There is no simple and reliable way to screen for ovarian cancer in women who do not have any signs or symptoms,” says Lind. However, as part of screening for cervical cancer, Medicare covers a pelvic exam that can detect ovarian cancer. Included with this pelvic exam is a clinical breast exam. Depending on your risk factor, these are done every year or every 24 months. “There are two additional tests used (in addition to a complete pelvic exam) to look for ovarian cancer: transvaginal ultrasound (TVUS) and the CA-125 blood test,” says Lind. “While Medicare does not cover these two additional tests as screening tests, Medicare will cover them in patients with symptoms suggestive of ovarian cancer or in those with known ovarian cancer or in individual patients with other gynecologic malignancies, such as endometrial cancer.” In 2020, Medicare addedlaboratory diagnostic testing using Next Generation Sequencing (NGS) for members with inherited ovarian and breast cancer, which provides genetic analysis of a patient’s cancer. Next up: 10 Cancer Super Survivors to Follow On Instagram
Sources
Keith Lind, Senior Strategic Policy Advisor in AARP’s Public Policy InstituteAlison Reeves, Press Officer for the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services
