School is about to start again, parents, are you ready?
School is about to start again, parents, are you ready?
Back to school season is about to start again, aside from the corona virus vaccinations, it’s highly recommended for parents to make sure that your kids have completed their annual checkups.
In addition to free annual checkups, health plans that are compliant to the Affordable Care Act will also include vaccines children need as they grow up under the preventive care benefits. The checkups are the perfect opportunity to update the information in the medical forms that most schools require to be filled prior to the start of the school year. You can also bring along forms that might be needed for extracurricular activities or field trips, where doctor’s notes are need as proof that your children are healthy enough to participate. For kids, the focus of preventive care is mainly on behavioral problems, issues with growth and development, emotional well-being, and any learning issues.
Parents should also make sure to take good care of themselves, and make good use of the free preventive care services in their health plans. It’s especially important for moms who plan on getting pregnant again to complete their own checkups on time.
Wellness Visits for Adults
- Flu shots
- Blood pressure and cholesterol
- Diabetes
- Diet and physical activity
- Colorectal cancer (for those over 50)
Wellness Visits for Adult Women
- Breast exam (every 1 to 3 years)
- Mammogram (ages 40 and above)
- Cervical cancer
Wellness Visits for Adult Men
- Prostate Cancer
How to Look for Doctors
First, confirm what kind of plan you’re on. If it’s HMO, then you go to the assigned Primary Care Physician. The information of the Primary Care Physician, including phone number, can usually be found on the insurance card, you can call the phone number to confirm and make appointments.
If on PPO, then there’s no assigned Primary Care Physician, you can instead look for a doctor that’s in-network through your insurance carrier’s website, and then make appointments using the information provided for the doctor.
