Preventive Guidelines and Screenings for Women, Children, and Youth

We want to make sure that women and children get the checkups and care they need to stay healthy.

We do this by:

• Developing national recommendations for well-child (up to age 21) and well-woman (starting at age 13) health care checkups
• Creating a list of health conditions that doctors should screen babies for when they’re born

Three key initiatives are:

Why this matters

By creating national guidance and screening recommendations for preventive clinical care, we:

• Help everyone get preventive care
• Promote access to these services
• Support well-being and prevent illness
• Help health care providers, communities, and families work together to improve health

The process

For well-child and well-woman recommendations

There are several steps:

1. Expert review: The Bright Futures and WPSI awardee organizations gather a group of clinical experts. The experts review existing guidelines and the newest research and propose updates.
2. Public input: We publish the proposed updates in the Federal Register. This gives an opportunity to everyone, including the public, to review the updates and give feedback.
3. Revision: The awardee organizations review the comments and recommendations. They may change their recommendations based on the feedback.
4. Final recommendations: The awardee organizations make recommendations to the HRSA Administrator.
5. Approval: After review, if the proposed guidelines are approved, the HRSA Administrator accepts them.
6. Publication: We publish the guidelines and make them available to health care providers and the public.

For newborn screening recommendations

Newborn screening can detect serious but treatable health conditions early in a baby’s life. The RUSP is a set of conditions that states can screen all babies for. Stakeholders such as clinicians, researchers, and families can nominate conditions to add to the RUSP.

We coordinate the Advisory Committee on Heritable Disorders in Newborns and Children (ACHDNC). This committee reviews evidence-based studies to assess the value of adding these conditions to the RUSP.

ACHDNC makes recommendations to the HHS Secretary based on evidence that supports:

• Potential benefits of screening for a condition
• States' ability to screen for a condition
• Availability of effective treatments

The Secretary recommends screening newborns for all conditions on the RUSP.

Frequency of updates

Awardees update Bright Futures and WPSI guidelines at least once every five years.

The ACHDNC accepts nominations for conditions to consider for the RUSP throughout the year.

Sharing guidelines

Bright Futures and WPSI awardees share the guidelines with doctors, nurses, and other providers, and encourage them to use the guidelines.

We fund a National Center for Newborn Screening System Excellence called NewSTEPs to guide states on how to carry out newborn screening.

Costs to consumers

According to Section 2713 of the Public Health Service Act, private health insurers must provide coverage with no out-of-pocket costs for the screenings and services in the guidelines. These guidelines make sure children and women receive a comprehensive set of preventive services without having to pay a co-payment, co-insurance, or deductible.

Group health plans purchased after March 23, 2010, and health insurance issuers offering group or individual health insurance coverage must cover the services and screenings listed in the guidelines without cost-sharing.