Are you using your Medicare preventive benefits?

||| FROM LENA KASSA for ORCAS SENIOR CENTER |||

Many Medicare beneficiaries don’t realize that Medicare offers a number of free services to help keep people healthy. When you get these services from a provider enrolled in Medicare, you will not have to pay a deductible or a copay. The covered services include:

• All vaccines recommended for people over the age of 65
• Annual wellness exams with your primary care provider (these are information gathering visits, not physical exams)
• Annual mammograms
• Annual prostate cancer screenings
• Annual depression screening
• Annual glaucoma screening
• Bone mass density screenings every 2 years
• Cardiovascular blood screenings every 5 years
• Cervical and vaginal cancer screenings every 2 years
• Colon cancer screenings every 10 years for colonoscopies, more frequently for other kinds of screenings

In addition, there are a number of other screenings that are free if your provider determines that you may be at risk for developing the disease or condition that the screening is intended to detect. Medicare also covers training to help manage a variety of health care conditions if your provider determines that you have the condition and could benefit from the training.

SHIBA, sponsored by Orcas Senior Center, is a free, unbiased, and confidential informational service offered through the Washington state Office of the Insurance Commissioner. Contact the Orcas Island SHIBA office at 360-376-5892 to schedule a counseling session.