Everyone has tried New Year resolutions, and many often succeed. Resolutions come in all forms, be it to improve one’s interaction with other people or family, or to improve one’s health by eating healthier or quitting smoking. Box Butte General Hospital urges area residents to try something new this year and consider resolutions to practice preventive health by taking advantage of health screenings.
As mentioned, people make choices every day to do things to improve their health, be it to exercise, eat healthier, drink less alcohol or stop smoking. But for whatever reason, having a preventive health plan for the year doesn’t make the list of healthy things to do.
A preventive health plan would include a discussion with a medical provider on what screenings would be appropriate. Screenings are tests or exams conducted to find a medical condition before symptoms begin. Screenings help find diseases or conditions early, which make them much easier to treat. Some screenings detect pre-cancerous conditions, with the suspect tissue (polyps, cysts, etc.) removed before they turn cancerous.
Some of the more common preventive health screenings and the most common type of testing done include:
— Breast cancer in women: Breast self-exam and mammography can help find breast cancer early when it is most treatable.
–Cervical cancer in women: Pap test – examining cells from the cervix under a microscope. By getting regular Pap tests and pelvic exams physicians can find and treat changing cells before they turn into cancer.
— Colorectal cancer: Everyone who is 50 or older should be screened for colorectal cancer. Colonoscopy is one method doctors use to screen for colorectal cancer.
— Diabetes: A blood test can show if a person has either Type I or Type II diabetes.
— High blood pressure: Everyone who visits a doctor has their blood pressure taken as a normal procedure. High blood pressure usually has no symptoms, but it can cause serious problems such as stroke, heart failure, heart attack and kidney failure.
— Osteoporosis: A bone mineral density test (DXA) is the best way to evaluate bone health.
— Prostate cancer in men: A physician can diagnose prostate cancer by feeling the prostate through the wall of the rectum or doing a blood test for prostate-specific antigen (PSA). Other tests include ultrasound, x-rays, or a biopsy.
Another preventive measure recently made possible through new technology is using ablation (the use of radiofrequency energy to heat unwanted or diseased cells to the point of cell death) to treat Barrett’s esophagus, a precursor of adenocarcinoma of the esophagus (cancer of the esophagus).
While these are the most common, there are additional preventive services the public can obtain and the new Affordable Care Act has eliminated most of the cost, if certain conditions are met.
According to HealthCare.gov, preventive services are covered under the Affordable Care Act. If a person has a new health insurance plan or insurance policy beginning on or after September 23, 2010, the following preventive services must be covered without the covered person having to pay a copayment or co-insurance or meet a deductible. According to HealthCare.gov, this applies only when these services are delivered by a network provider.
There are 16 covered preventive services for adults, ranging from Abdominal Aortic Aneurysm or Cholesterol screenings to Type 2 Diabetes screening or immunization vaccines for adults.
Women, including pregnant women, have 22 covered preventive services, ranging from screenings for anemia and mammography every one to two years (for women over 40), to screenings for cervical cancer and gestational diabetes screening for women 24 to 28 weeks pregnant and those at high risk of developing gestational diabetes.
And finally there are 27 types of preventive services for children, ranging from autism screenings at 18 and 24 months to hearing screenings for newborns.
A complete list of covered preventive services can be found at http://www.healthcare.gov/
What tests a person should do depends on age, sex, family history and whether the person has risk factors for certain diseases. Make this New Year resolution different by visiting with a primary care provider soon about what preventive health tests are best for you.