April is National Minority Health Month - Please join with the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) during National Minority Health Month to promote preventive benefits, which are often underutilized by minority populations. In general, low-income Americans and racial and ethnic minorities experience disproportionately higher rates of disease, fewer treatment options, and reduced access to care. Educating people about healthy behaviors and lifestyle modification can help to postpone and avoid illness and disease. In addition, detecting health problems at an early stage increases the chances of effectively treating them, often reducing suffering and costs. Medicare pays for many preventive services to help keep seniors and others with Medicare healthy. These preventive services can detect health problems early, when treatment works best, and can keep our most vulnerable populations from getting certain diseases. Medicare-covered preventive services include exams, immunizations, lab tests, screenings, and programs for health monitoring, as well as counseling and education to help Medicare beneficiaries maintain optimum health.
The Affordable Care Act made improvements to the Medicare program. As a result, starting in 2011, beneficiaries with Original Medicare are eligible to receive a yearly "Wellness" exam in addition to many preventive services. Medicare-Covered Services: Medicare provides coverage of the following preventive services and screenings, subject to beneficiary eligibility: § Abdominal Aortic Aneurysm Screening § Bone Mass Measurements § Cancer Screenings o Breast (Mammogram and Clinical Breast Exam) o Cervical and Vaginal (Pap Test and Pelvic Exam) o Colorectal o Prostate § Cardiovascular Disease Screenings § Diabetes Screening, Supplies, and Self-Management Training § EKG Screening § Glaucoma Screening § HIV Screening § Immunizations o Hepatitis B o Influenza o Pneumococcal § Medical Nutrition Therapy (Beneficiaries with Diabetes or Renal Disease) § One-time "Welcome to Medicare" Physical Exam § Tobacco Use Cessation Counseling § Annual Wellness Exam (New for 2011) How Can You Help? As a health care professional who provides services to seniors and other people with Medicare, CMS needs your help to ensure that all eligible Medicare beneficiaries take advantage of preventive services. We ask that you talk with your patients about their risk factors for various diseases and highlight the importance of prevention and early disease detection through the use of appropriate screenings (at the appropriate frequency). NOTE: Many of these Medicare-covered services require provider referrals so we are counting on you to provide referrals when appropriate. For More Information: * CMS Preventive Services Website<http://www.cms.gov/PrevntionGenInfo/> * Medicare Learning Network® (MLN) Preventive Services Educational Products <http://www.cms.gov/MLNProducts/35_PreventiveServices.asp#TopOfPage> * Quick Reference Information: Medicare Preventive Services<http://www.cms.gov/MLNProducts/downloads/MPS_QuickReferenceChart_1.pdf> * The Office of Minority Health <http://minorityhealth.hhs.gov/> Together we can help to eliminate health disparities and achieve optimal health for all racial and ethnic groups. Thank you Note: If you have problems accessing any hyperlink in this message, please copy and paste the URL into your Internet browser. If you know someone who would like to subscribe to a Medicare Fee-For-Service (FFS) provider listserv, go to (http://www.cms.gov/prospmedicarefeesvcpmtgen/downloads/Provider_Listservs.pdf). If you would like to unsubscribe from a specific provider listserv, please go to (https://list.nih.gov/cgi-bin/wa.exe?INDEX) to unsubscribe or to leave the appropriate listserv. Please DO NOT respond to this email. This email is a service of CMS and routed through an electronic mail server to communicate Medicare policy and operational changes and/or updates. Responses to this email are not routed to CMS personnel. Inquiries may be sent by going to (http://www.cms.gov/ContactCMS). Thank you.
