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Running head: CLINICAL PREVENTIVE SERVICES

Clinical Preventive Services

Clinical Preventive Services

RaShona Shipp

Walden University

September 22, 2019

Clinical Preventive Services

Introduction

Clinical preventive services are measures that are put in place to prevent the occurrence of death, a disability or a disease. The services are meant to either identify or prevent diseases in the earlier stages of the diseases which are easily treatable compared to the late stages that can easily cause the death of an individual. It is unfortunate that despite the availability of these services many people do not utilize these services which are meant to help them stay in perfect health by avoiding getting ill or helping them treat diseases before they become worse.

Lung cancer screening

Like every other screening lung cancer screening is important in that it helps to find out if an individual has early stages of lung cancer at which the disease is highly treatable. A low dose CT scan currently happens to be the only tool that minimizes the risk of dying from lung cancer. By the time one has the symptoms of lung cancer the cancer is already widely spread and is more difficult to treat. This makes it necessary not to sit and assume one is okay until they get the symptoms but instead go for screening early enough increasing the probability of the individuals survival (Moyer, 2014).

Having this in mind it becomes a matter of necessity to have a lung cancer screening in any type of health insurance coverage which unfortunately is not the case right now. Extra costs may come up depending on the terms and conditions of the insurance cover one is using. Costs of lung cancer screening on the insurance company rely on number of people to be screened, prices of the different types of screening, the used screening type and finally the quality of the specific type of screening (Flocke & Gilchrist, 2005).

Repeated screenings and follow ups are cheaper compared to first time screening. Though several assumptions have been put in place to estimate the costs of screening it is difficult to have accurate numbers since it is difficult to predict the exact number of people who will need screening, the number of times they may need the screening and the exact costs incurred in the process. Fortunately several researchers have found out that having lung cancer screening covered by health insurances would help individuals at a relatively and reasonably lower cost (Maciosek et al, 2010).

Having lung cancer screening under health insurance coverage would encourage more people to turn up for the screening. Many people are afraid because they are not in positions to raise the huge amounts of cash needed for screening especially because most of them fall under middle class and low class financial levels. Insurance coverage then has the ability to improve population health to a very high percentage compared to having individuals paying directly.

Breastfeeding: Primary Care Intervention

Over the years research has shown that children who are well breastfed have higher immunities in their bodies increasing their chances of enjoying good health in their life time. It is quite unfortunate that most mothers do not breastfeed their children as necessary making it important to have primary care interventions. Interventions can be easily provided by clinicians who work closely with the mothers before and after delivery. It is therefore important to have primary care intervention under health insurance coverage considering that the health of the young ones are at stake. By implementation of having primary care intervention under health insurance coverage many infants and babies would have high chances of receiving quality primary care (Bibbins et al, 2016).

Since primary care interventions would be given to several individuals at a time through health insurance covers, it makes it more cost friendly for the insurance companies. The population health of the people is also improved by having people with high immunity against diseases, giving them chances to enjoy good health and long life compared to when the people do not get the right primary care at early ages. A large number of people are reached out and get help contrary to when they seek primary care intervention on their own.

Skin cancer prevention: Behavioral counselling

The risk of getting skin cancer is increased when an individual is exposed to ultraviolet radiations especially in their early life period. In behavioral counselling individuals are asked to avoid staying too long under the sun especially during mid-day, to put on clothes that prevent them from being exposed to the sun, to make use of sunscreen and to keep off tanning beds. Many ways can be used to deliver counselling having many ways communication available today. Behavioral counselling has potential positive outcomes since having more informed individuals cause people to change their behavior and in return there are lesser cases of skin cancer (Lin et al, 2011).

Having behavioral counselling for skin care prevention under health insurance coverage would help to reach larger populations considering the fact that few people have the knowledge that skin cancer is caused by ultraviolet radiations that come from the sun. Increasing awareness would give individuals higher chances of getting to know how they can prevent skin cancer and in return we would be having improved population health considering that most people are ignorant about such topics. Providing counselling under insurance coverage would be more effective and at the same time cost friendly for the insurance companies.

Research, ethics and evidence in creating health related policies

Research, ethics and evidence in some instances have been found to work against each other in creating health related policies. Over the years individuals have come up with different views on how the three can be incorporated to ensure that policies are highly effective and applicable. Research on its own remains an important factor to be considered when trying to come up with health policies. A research helps to get details of possible outcomes whether negative or positive that may be used to inform decision making. Without carrying out a research there is a likelihood that the health policy makers will miss out on some possible outcomes that they would foresee if they carried out a research before decision making (Flocke & Gilchrist, 2005).

The four classical principles of biomedical ethics are; respect for personal autonomy, non-maleficence, beneficence and justice (Tannahill, 2008). Evidence on the other hand is based on previous experiences. Decisions based on evidence are based on whether an action has happened in the past and was it outcomes positive or negative. It is important however to incorporate the two to ensure that health policies made do not contradict the ethical principles making them highly applicable and effective.

Clinical preventive services are grounded in science through the use of research, ethics and evidence to make sure that they remain sensible and are beneficial in the provision of healthcare. Evidence from health insurance coverage in other clinical preventive services by private insurances would be of great importance in informing a policy that requires the health insurance coverage of the discussed clinical preventive services (Flocke & Gilchrist, 2005).

Conclusion

The discussed clinical preventive services if easily available to the people through health insurance coverage, will have a huge impact on social behavior. A social behavior such as basking in the sun at mid-day would be changed due to the awareness that it causes skin cancer. Primary care intervention would change the habit of many mothers who do not think breastfeeding their children for the recommended duration, six months, is important. Lung cancer screening would provide smokers with the opportunity to go for screening and not wait until they see the symptoms of lung cancer.

References

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A. ... & Mangione, C. M. (2016). Primary care interventions to support breastfeeding: US Preventive Services Task Force recommendation statement.Jama, 316(16), 1688-1693.

Flocke, S. A., & Gilchrist, V. (2005). Physician and patient gender concordance and the delivery

of comprehensive clinical preventive services. Medical care, 486-492.

Lin, J. S., Eder, M., & Weinmann, S. (2011). Behavioral counseling to prevent skin cancer: a

Systematic review for the US Preventive Services Task Force. Annals of internal medicine, 154(3), 190-201.

Maciosek, M. V., Coffield, A. B., Flottemesch, T. J., Edwards, N. M., & Solberg, L. I. (2010).

Greater use of preventive services in US health care could save lives at little or no cost. Health Affairs, 29(9), 1656-1660.

Moyer, V. A. (2014). Screening for lung cancer: US Preventive Services Task Force

Recommendation statement. Annals of internal medicine, 160(5), 330-338.

Tannahill, A. (2008). Beyond evidence—to ethics: a decision-making framework for health

Promotion, public health and health improvement. Health Promotion International, 23(4), 380-390.