HHS Backs Recommendations on Women’s Preventive Care
On Monday, the Obama administration announced that it will adopt an Institute of Medicine panel's recommendation that health plans starting next year provide no-cost coverage of certain women's preventive health services, including contraception. Under the federal health reform law, plans that start on or after Aug. 1, 2012, are required to cover preventive services without copayments, co-insurance or deductibles. The administration also released an amendment that permits religious entities that offer their own health plans to choose whether to cover contraceptive services. HHS noted that the religious exemption applies to not-for-profit groups that have the inculcation of religious values as their purpose, primarily employ individuals who hold certain religious beliefs and primarily serve a population with those religious tenets.
- "New Health Insurance Plans Will be Required To Cover Birth Control" (Pecquet, "Healthwatch," The Hill, 8/1).
- "HHS OKs Birth Control With No Copay" (Rice, CNN, 8/1).