Preventive program
A preventive program is understood to mean the preventive examinations provided by the statutory health insurance for the early detection of diseases . A distinction is made between prevention programs for newborns and children, adolescents, women and men.
Similar regulations apply to German private health insurances (PKV).
These examinations are aimed at detecting common economically relevant diseases that occur in the population at an early stage in order to achieve a cure through timely treatment (e.g. colon cancer ) or alleviate the consequential damage (e.g. diabetes , high blood pressure ). This should save the health insurance companies the costs of treating the consequential damage. When creating preventive programs, it is not the medically feasible that is used as the basis, but the (also economic) consideration of the benefits and harms of a meaningful screening .
Example: The costs for the only sensible bowel cancer screening by means of colonoscopy (screening colonoscopy ) are only covered by health insurance companies in Germany from the age of 55, because it is only from this age that the benefits outweigh the costs. Colon cancer cases up to this age fall out of this grid.
Basic program
Health insurance companies also use preventive programs as a form of advertising for the insured. Not all preventive examinations are offered by the statutory health insurance. Preventive examinations that are not covered by the basic program of the statutory health insurances are partly recorded in the IGeL list and offered to the patient as an individual health service (IGeL service) and, if necessary, billed privately.
See also
- Health check-up for the early detection of diseases
- Disease prevention
- Medical check-up
- Medical check-up (dentistry)
