Medicare will now cover a “comprehensive physical” and the appropriate screening tests that accompany it.
The “welcome to Medicare physical” for new beneficiaries includes influenza and hepatitis B vaccines, mammograms, Pap smears and pelvic examinations and screening tests for prostate cancer, colon cancer, glaucoma and osteoporosis, among other conditions.
It will even cover things like a routine EKG, which is not even recommended by the USPSTF.
In any case, Medicare is finally getting into the 21st century and moving its focus towards disease prevention. Better late than never.
Related posts:
- Dr. John Corso: Another physician ignoring the evidence
- Should we start screening women for ovarian cancer?
- Prostate cancer screening in men over 75
- Routine screening test recommendations, and how newspapers often get it wrong
- The data argues against an annual physical, but is it still needed?
- Prostate cancer screening in blacks, and the lack of balanced information
- A doctor who advocates no screening tests
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