More than 5.5 million Medicare beneficiaries have taken advantage of the free preventive services offered under the Affordable Care Act, but that number is far short of the 33 million who are eligible under the new law, Medicare officials reported.
Beneficiarieshare eligible for preventive services such as mammograms and smoking cessation counseling with no copayments or deductibles under Medicare Part B. They are also eligible for an annual wellness visit at no cost. Between Jan. 1 and June 10, more than 780,000 people on Medicare had an annual wellness visit, according to the report from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. Mammograms, as well as bone density and prostate cancer screenings, were among the most popular preventives services so far this year.
On June 20, federal officials launched a public outreach campaign, “Share the News, Share the Health,” to increase awareness of the new benefits. The campaign includes TV and radio advertisements, information on the Medicare.gov
“People trust their doctors,” CMS Administrator Donald Berwick said during the press briefing.
Dr. Berwick predicted that visits to physicians will increase substantially once more patients are aware that preventive services are available for free.
“These are very important benefits, and I expect we're going to see a lot of increasing interest, especially now that barriers have been lowered,” he said.
This is part of an overall shift toward prevention within health care, Dr. Berwick noted.