You have taken your Blue Health Assessment and made an appointment with your physician for an annual exam. But what can you expect when you get to the doctor's office?
The Exam
Your doctor will use some standard and simple techniques to check your heart health such as listening to your heart, checking your heart rate and checking your blood pressure.
- Your pulse matches up to the beats of your heart as it pumps blood through your body. By feeling your pulse, your doctor can check your heart's rate, rhythm and regularity. The strength of your pulse also helps the doctor evaluate the amount of blood flowing through your body.
- With the aid of a stethoscope, your doctor will listen to your heartbeat to evaluate your heart and valve function. The sound your heart makes is actually the opening and closing of your heart valves.
- Blood pressure is the force exerted in the arteries by blood as it is pumped through your body by your heart. There are two blood pressure measurements: Systolic blood pressure and Diastolic blood pressure. Systolic blood pressure measures the pressure in the arteries during the heart's contraction and is the higher number of a blood pressure reading. The lower number, Diastolic blood pressure, measures the pressure in the arteries when the heart is relaxed between heart beats.
Your doctor can also tell a lot about your heart health by examining other parts of your body, including your eyes, arms, legs and skin. In addition, your doctor may recommend a blood test to check for cholesterol and other indicators of heart disease.
Diagnostic Tests
As part of your annual physical, your physician may ask you to take an Electrocardiogram or EKG and/or an Exercise Stress Test.
An EKG is a test that records the electrical activity of your heart using small electrode patches attached to your chest, arms and legs. Once the electrodes are attached, you lie flat while a computer creates a graph of the electrical impulses traveling through your heart. Although it takes about ten minutes to attach the electrodes, the actual test only takes a couple of seconds. Using the results of the EKG, your physician can determine your heart rhythm, blood flow to your heart and detect any irregularities.
An Exercise Stress Test is used to determine how much stress your heart can manage before developing either an abnormal rhythm or evidence that not enough blood is flowing to your heart. Basically, it measures how your heart responds to exertion. This test normally involves walking on a treadmill or pedaling a stationary bike at increasing levels of difficulty while your heart rate and blood pressure are monitored. Before you start exercising, an EKG will be performed to measure your heart rate at rest and your blood pressure. The EKG electrodes remain on during the test so technicians can monitor your heart rate and blood pressure during the test. They will also ask how you are feeling periodically. Using the Exercise Stress Test, your physician can check your blood flow to your heart, evaluate the effectiveness of any heart medication you are taking, determine your risk for heart disease and if any additional testing is needed, and identify any abnormal heart rhythms.
We've Got Your Covered
Both Standard and Basic Option preventive care benefits are available for an annual routine physical exam by a Preferred physician. As part of this routine exam, we provide benefits for an EKG, Chest X-ray and a cholesterol test that help determine your risk for heart disease. You pay nothing for these tests after you pay the appropriate copayment for the office visit. Or you can take your Blue Health Assessment in 2010 prior to your annual routine physical and receive a certificate to waive the copayment amount.
Your Service Benefit Plan coverage also provides benefits for diagnostic tests necessary to diagnose or treat heart disease performed by a physician, in the outpatient department of hospital or other facility, and as part of an inpatient hospital admission.
Benefits for preventive care are described in Section 5(a) of the 2010 Service Benefit Plan brochure. You can check out benefits for diagnostic tests in Section 5(a) for physician care and in Section 5(c) for test performed in a hospital or other facility.