Why is preventive care important? Save cash and keep employees healthy.

Medical coverage can help your employees stay healthy — with no out-of-pocket costs to them — just by taking advantage of your health plan’s preventive care offerings.

Plus, when they stay healthy, it can also keep your costs in check!

Easy Ways to Encourage Your Employees to Use Preventive Care

Many employees don’t utilize these important services because they’re not aware of the benefits or believe they are too busy to make an appointment.

Here are a few easy things your ministry can do to encourage employees to use preventive care offered in their GuideStone® health plan:

Provide each employee with a copy of your plan's Preventive Care Schedule to find out what is considered preventive care and how often to get screening.
Share a copy of this preventive care handout for a simple five-step plan to use their benefits.
Encourage employees to earn cash rewards by using SmartShopper^® to shop for their health care procedures such as mammograms and colonoscopies.

The Cost of Preventive Care vs. Treatment for Common Conditions

Preventive care saves dollars and improves lives.

Compare the cost for preventive care services versus treatment for these common conditions. Encourage your employees to take advantage of preventive care to monitor their health.

Preventive care screening options	Insurance participant's charge	Estimated cost for treatment	What's the risk?
Diabetes screening	Free for those aged 40 and older once every three years.	$237 billion per year is spent on direct costs relating to diabetes.¹ The average person with diabetes spends about 2.6 times more on medical care than someone without diabetes.²	48% to 64% of lifetime medical costs for a person with diabetes are for complications related to diabetes, such as heart disease and stroke.¹
Mammogram	One preventive mammogram per year for all women aged 40 and older.	The average cost to treat breast cancer is approximately between $35,000 and $76,100.³	Approximately 290,000 new cases of invasive breast cancer are diagnosed among women annually.⁴
Colon cancer screening	One preventive colonoscopy per year for men and women aged 50 and older.	The average cost to treat colorectal cancer is approximately between $66,500 and $110,100.⁵	Colorectal cancer is the third most common cancer diagnosed in both men and women in the U.S. An estimated 150,000 new cases are diagnosed annually.⁶

An Ounce of Prevention Goes a Long Way

Why is preventive care important? By helping prevent disease and detecting problems earlier, preventive care helps your employees stay at their healthiest as they advance the Kingdom of God. At GuideStone, we’re here to help your employees lead resilient lives in all seasons of their ministry. For more information, contact us at Insurance@GuideStone.org or 1-844-INS-GUIDE (1-844-467-4843), Monday through Friday, from 7 a.m. to 6 p.m. CT.

GuideStone welcomes the opportunity to share this general information. However, this article is not intended to be relied upon as medical advice, diagnosis or treatment.

¹cdc.gov/chronicdisease/programs-impact/pop/diabetes.htm

²diabetes.org/newsroom/press-releases/new-american-diabetes-association-report-finds-annual-costs-diabetes-be

³cdc.gov/chronicdisease/programs-impact/pop/breast-cancer.htm

⁴komen.org/breast-cancer/facts-statistics/breast-cancer-statistics

⁵cdc.gov/chronicdisease/programs-impact/pop/colorectal-cancer.htm

⁶cancer.org/cancer/types/colon-rectal-cancer/about/key-statistics.html

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Health | Life | Other Coverages Health and Wellness