Preventive Healthcare Guidelines for Women and Children Improve Under Affordable Care Act

"Access to preventive care can help save countless lives and should be available without out-of-pocket costs, especially now during the COVID-19 pandemic,” HHS Secretary Xavier Becerra said (https://www.hhs.gov/about/news/2022/01/11/hrsa-updates-affordable-care-act-preventive-health-care-guidelines-improve-care-women-children.html). “The updated guidelines help ensure that we’re providing critical services to keep families healthy, based on the latest science and data available.”

The Women’s Preventive Services Guidelines (https://www.hrsa.gov/womens-guidelines/index.html) help clinicians determine which services they should routinely provide their patients. HRSA expanded the existing guidelines based on recommendations from the Women’s Preventive Services Initiative (https://www.womenspreventivehealth.org/), an interprofessional team of women’s health experts that will regularly review and recommend additional updates on a rolling basis. The latest updates expand coverage for breastfeeding services and supplies, well-woman preventive care visits, access to contraceptives and contraceptive counseling, screening for HIV, and counseling for sexually transmitted infections and include (https://www.hhs.gov/about/news/2022/01/11/hrsa-updates-affordable-care-act-preventive-health-care-guidelines-improve-care-women-children.html) requiring coverage without cost-sharing for double electric breast pumps and preventing and reducing obesity in women aged 40–60 through counseling.

HRSA also accepted the Bright Futures Program (https://mchb.hrsa.gov/programs-impact/programs/bright-futures)’s, a team of pediatric primary care experts that evaluates the guidelines for preventive care screenings and routine visits for newborns through adolescents up to age 21, recommendations (https://www.hhs.gov/about/news/2022/01/11/hrsa-updates-affordable-care-act-preventive-health-care-guidelines-improve-care-women-children.html) to add coverage of universal screening for suicide risk to the current depression screening category for individuals aged 12–21; and guidance for behavioral, social, and emotional screening; assessing risks for cardiac arrest for individuals aged 11–21; and assessing risks for hepatitis B virus infection in newborns to 21-year-olds.

“We are pleased to release these updated guidelines to expand insurance coverage of preventive services for women, infants, children, and teenagers,” HRSA Administrator Carole Johnson said (https://www.hhs.gov/about/news/2022/01/11/hrsa-updates-affordable-care-act-preventive-health-care-guidelines-improve-care-women-children.html). “By requiring coverage with no cost sharing for services like double-electric breast pumps for new parents and suicide risk screening for adolescents, these guidelines will help save lives and help families save money on out-of-pocket costs.”