Understanding Medicare part II: Lifesaving screenings and preventative care

(The Dallas Examiner) – Patients new to Medicare can benefit from its preventative programs. Once patients have been on Medicare Part B for 12 months, they can receive a yearly wellness visit to develop or update a preventative plan to meet their health care needs.One of the most important and critical preventive screenings recommended include the abdominal aortic aneurysm screen, according to Felecia Warner, benefits counselor II with the North Central Texas Area on Aging.Related Stories “I know that’s a scary, scary, scary thing,” she said. “But if you get a one-time screening, and it’s for people who are at risk, and again, you must have that open, honest, frank conversation with your doctor about your risks and also family history, and we know that an aorta is the largest artery in the body. It carries blood away from the heart, and when it reaches the abdomen it is called the abdominal aorta. And when you have something that’s weak in that area, it can have bulges and you can develop an aneurysm, and they develop slowly, so you don’t know. But if you have a family history of that, then that’s something that you might want to consider and...