Medicare offers many free services according to the Savvy Senior at the Daily Herald. Most of the services are for preventive health care. Below is a list of free services quoted from the article.
Free services
Thanks to the Affordable Care Act, original Medicare now offers many of their preventive health services completely free to beneficiaries.
Preventive services include various exams, lab tests and screenings that help find health problems in their earliest stages when they’re easier to treat. They also include a number of vaccinations and programs for health monitoring, as well as counseling and education to help you take care of your own health.
Here’s a quick rundown of the different Medicare preventive services that won’t cost you a cent, along with the eligibility requirements you’ll need to meet to get them.
• Wellness visits: All Medicare beneficiaries are eligible for two types of preventive wellness visits — one when you’re new to Medicare and one each year after that. But don’t confuse these with full physical examinations. These are prevention-focused visits that provide only an overview of your health and medical risk factors and serve as a baseline for future care.
• Colorectal cancer screening: The fecal occult blood test, flexible sigmoidoscopy or colonoscopy is available to all beneficiaries age 50 or older.
• Mammograms: All women with Medicare ages 40 and older can get a free breast cancer screening mammogram every year.
• Pap tests and pelvic exams: These cervical and vaginal cancer screenings are available every two years, or once a year for those at high risk.
• Prostate cancer screenings: Annual PSA blood tests are available to all male beneficiaries age 50 and older.
• Cardiovascular screenings: Free blood test to check cholesterol, lipid and triglyceride levels are offered every five years to all Medicare recipients.
• Diabetes: Screening available twice a year for those at risk.
• Bone mass measurements: This osteoporosis test is available every two years to those at risk, or more often if medically necessary.
• Abdominal aortic aneurysm screening: To check for bulging blood vessels, this test is available to men ages 65 to 75 who have ever smoked.
• Vaccinations: An annual flu shot, a vaccination against pneumonia and the hepatitis B vaccine are all free to all beneficiaries.
In addition, Medicare also offers free smoking cessation counseling; medical nutrition therapy to help beneficiaries with diabetes or kidney disease; depression screenings; alcohol screening and counseling; obesity screening and counseling; annual cardiovascular risk reduction visits; sexually transmitted infection screening and counseling; and HIV screenings.
Read the complete article from the Daily Herald.
As you age, it is important to keep tabs on your health. Be sure to take advantage of any free preventative health care options available to you. It is important to catch health problems early when treatment is the most effective.