The HHS Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) has issued updated women’s preventive services guidelines that were approved on December 29, 2025. As a reminder, non-grandfathered group health plans and insurers must cover without cost-sharing certain preventive services specified by HRSA, the United State Preventive Services Task Force (USPSTF), and the CDC’s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP). Recommendations and guidelines are updated periodically, and non-grandfathered health plans generally must cover newly recommended services in plan years beginning on or after the date that is one year after the guideline is approved.

The updated HRSA guidelines add the following to the list of health services that must be covered without cost-sharing for plan years beginning on or after December 29, 2026:

• Self-collected cervical cancer screening for women aged 30 to 65 years with average risk.
• Additional testing if necessary to complete the screening process for malignancies (e.g., cytology, biopsy, colposcopy, extended genotyping, and dual stain).

To dig deeper, visit the original article on the Thomson Reuters blog.