Preventive Services

Published 8/16/2008

Medicare covers many preventive and screening services at no cost to you (waived deductible and coinsurance/copayment) if your doctor accepts assignment, including the following:

  • Your first "Welcome to Medicare" visit, also known as the Initial Preventive Physical Examination (IPPE)
  • Annual Wellness Visit
  • Abdominal Aortic Aneurysm (AAA) Screening
  • Colorectal Cancer Screening (Fecal Occult Blood Test (FOBT), flexible sigmoidoscopy and colonoscopy)
  • Bone Mass Measurement
  • Cardiovascular Disease Screening  
  • Diabetes Screening Tests
  • Hepatitis B Virus (HBV) Vaccination
  • Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) Screening
  • Medical Nutrition Therapy
  • Pneumococcal Vaccination
  • Prostate Cancer Screening – Specific Antigen (PSA) blood test
  • Screening Mammogram
  • Screening Pap Test
  • Screening Pelvic Exam (including a clinical breast examination)
  • Seasonal Influenza Virus Vaccination
  • Smoking and Tobacco-Use Cessation Counseling Services and Counseling to Prevent Tobacco Use (for symptomatic beneficiaries)
  • Intensive Behavioral Therapy (IBT) for Cardiovascular Disease (CVD)
  • Intensive Behavioral Therapy (IBT) for Obesity
  • Screening for Depression
  • Screening and Behavioral Counseling Interventions in Primary Care to Reduce Alcohol Misuse
  • Sexually Transmitted Infections (STIs) Screening and High Intensity Behavioral Counseling (HIBC) to Prevent STIs
  • Hepatitis C Screening Test
  • Lung Cancer Screening

For some preventive services, coinsurance or copayment and the Medicare Part B deductible apply:

  • Diabetes Self-Management Training
  • Glaucoma Screening
  • Prostate Cancer Screening – Digital Rectal Examination

For Colorectal Cancer Screening (Barium Enema), the coinsurance or copayment applies, and the Medicare Part B deductible is waived.

View a list of Medicare’s covered preventive services to see more information on Medicare covered preventive services including who is covered and how often the services are covered.


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