The INSURE project on lifecycle preventive health services

The INSURE Project on Lifecycle Preventive Health Services is a 3-year study to determine the feasibility of implementing preventive services in primary medical care as a health insurance benefit and to assess the short-term impact of this implementation on providers and consumers. Initiated by the life and health insurance companies, the project has received additional support from private philanthropic foundations. Preventive services, which will be provided under a lifecycle approach according to the age and sex of the patient and include education of patients on health-related behavior, will range from prenatal care through geriatrics. A quasi-experimental design will be used in which three study (experimental) group practice sites are matched with three control group practice sites. At the study sites, the primary care physicians will participate in orientation sessions on recommended preventive services and patient education procedure; they will also examine and counsel the study patients. The study and control physicians and patients will be surveyed before and after the program of intervention is conducted at the study sites to assess their knowledge, attitudes, and behavior toward health behavior practices.