ACOG makes update recommendations for covered women's health services services

by Roy Edroso on Sep 28, 2016

A major women's health organization has issued draft recommendation for required, copay-free health care coverage for women, which has guidelines close to current standards.

The Affordable Care Act (ACA) requires women's health services to be covered by all group health care plans without cost-sharing except as exempted for religious and other considerations. Standards for these services are set by HHS' Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA), which entered a cooperative agreement with the  American College of Obstetricians and Gyncecologists (ACOG) evaluate and update coverage guidelines.

The recommendations made by ACOG's Women's Preventive Services Initiative (WPSI) are mostly close to current standards. For example, current coverage requirements for breast cancer prevention coverage are mammography screenings every one to two years for women over 40 and breast cancer prevention counseling for women at higher risk. WPSI recommends "discussions between women in their 40s at average risk of breast cancer and their health care providers" and "screening mammography every one or two years for women at average risk."

Some recommendations add detail to guidelines that are currently rather general. For example, HHS requires "breastfeeding comprehensive support and counseling from trained providers, as well as access to breastfeeding supplies, for pregnant and nursing women." WPSI asks for "comprehensive lactation support" provided by a "lactation care provider" for as long as as the patient and her providers wish it continued. 

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