Being proactive with your health today can impact your well-being tomorrow. Preventive care, such as regular checkups and screenings, offers advantages for your health and your wallet.
Preventive care can help detect health issues before they progress to more severe conditions later. Periodic disease testing increases the likelihood of early treatment and better outcomes. For example, a mammogram or colon cancer screening could identify early-stage cancer, which is typically easier to treat than late-stage cancer.
Getting routine exams and other preventive care helps establish a baseline. This provides your health care provider with reference points to assess your overall health year over year and to review changes over time that may indicate an issue. Your health timeline can help health care professionals identify and manage deviations.
Using preventive care is a financial win! Nearly all major health plans include preventive care benefits with no out-of-pocket expenses when you seek care within your plan’s network.* These benefits are built into all health plans that comply with the Affordable Care Act (ACA) — including those offered by GuideStone®.
Preventive care can help identify health care issues early, which can potentially make treating conditions less costly. For example, a routine checkup could flag high blood pressure, which can be managed by diet and low-cost medication. If left unchecked, high blood pressure can cause a myriad of other costly health issues, such as a heart attack or stroke.
Preventive care benefits, which can have age requirements, help provide you and your dependents with services such as:
Health care that is not considered preventive involves the diagnosis, monitoring and treatment of symptoms, risk factors or health conditions, including illnesses and injuries. This is called diagnostic care. In this case, the health care provider seeks to diagnose or treat an existing condition.
If a preventive exam uncovers an issue that leads to a diagnosis or treatment, subsequent procedures are paid according to the health plan benefits, which can include a deductible, co-insurance or co-pays.
Common types of diagnostic care can include:
If you receive a bill for a procedure you expected to be preventive, consider four tips to determine what may have happened and what your next steps may be. You can always call the number on the back of your medical ID card for help with claims.
Preventive care is good stewardship. Scripture shows that God cares about how we treat the physical bodies that he gave us. Keeping your body in good condition helps you serve God and his church well.
If you have a GuideStone health plan, learn which benefits are available in the Preventive Schedule. You can also find a 5-step plan for using preventive care benefits. 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.
*Preventive care is covered at no additional cost when using in-network providers and facilities for eligible routine preventive care.
GuideStone welcomes the opportunity to share this general information. However, this article is not intended to be relied upon as legal advice or medical advice, diagnosis or treatment.
Article
• Feb 4, 2026 