Starting the Conversation:
Talking to Your Patients About Their Preventive Care

Preventive care is critical to your patients’ health. By receiving their preventive exams on a regular basis, you can locate any health problems early on so that you and your patient can take steps to prevent it from becoming a chronic illness. It may even save your patient’s life!

What the Patient Needs to Know

When discussing preventive care with your patients, it’s important that they are aware of the following:

  • Why it is important to schedule preventive care visits
  • How to locate their preventive care schedule
    • For Highmark members, the schedule is located on Highmark’s Member website.
    • Once accessing the site they need to select the Coverage Tab, click Medical Benefits, and scroll down to the Preventive Care section.
  • To bring their preventive schedule with them to their office appointments

Starting the Conversation

It can be hard to start a conversation about preventive health with a patient, especially if you are not their Primary Care Physician (PCP) or don’t know what information they already know. Here are some questions you can ask to help start and guide the conversation.

  • Do you know the importance of preventive exams and visits?
  • Do you know what exams someone your age and gender should be receiving?
  • Do you know how often these exams should be received?
  • Do you know how to locate your preventive schedule?
  • When was your last exam?
  • Did you know it is free to receive this exam with your insurance?
  • Would you like to schedule a preventive exam with me today?

If you are an urgent care doctor or work in a hospital and need to start this conversation with your patient, here are some additional questions you can ask:

  • Do you have a current PCP?
  • Would you like a referral to a PCP in your area that accepts your insurance?

Staying Up to Date

Remember to regularly check for updates to the Preventive Health Guidelines on the Provider Resource Center. You need to be aware of these changes to assist your patients in making better health decisions.

To access these changes:

  • Access your Provider Resource Center
  • Click Education/Manuals
  • Select any of the Preventive Health Guidelines

Children and adults alike also need to be up-to-date on their immunizations. To access the latest immunization schedules:

  • Access your Provider Resource Center
  • Click Education/Manuals
  • Select any of the Immunization Schedules

Thank you for your continued care for your patients, our members.

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Provider News, Issue 2, 2020   |   © 2020 Highmark Blue Cross Blue Shield Delaware

 

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