The Obama administration’s rules requiring health insurance companies to cover prevention-related healthcare services for women took effect Aug. 1.

Previously some insurance companies did not cover these preventive services for women at all, while some women had to pay deductibles or copays for such services. Rules in the Affordable Care Act requiring coverage of these services apply at the next renewal date — on or after Aug. 1 — for most health insurance plans.

"The law puts women and their doctors, not insurance companies or the government, in charge of healthcare decisions," Kathleen Sebelius, secretary of the Department of Health & Human Services, said in a news release.

According to a new HHS report, about 47 million women are in health plans that must cover these new preventive services at no charge.

The eight new prevention-related services are well-woman visits; gestational diabetes screening; domestic and interpersonal violence screening and counseling; U.S. Food and Drug Administration-approved contraceptive methods and contraceptive education and counseling; breast-feeding support, supplies and counseling; HPV DNA testing for women 30 or older; sexually transmitted infections counseling for sexually-active women; and HIV screening and counseling for sexually-active women.

ACA rules already have allowed individuals in private plans and Medicare access to potentially life-saving tests and services such as mammograms, cholesterol screenings and flu shots without coinsurance or deductibles. The new rules build on these benefits, generally requiring insurance companies to offer, with no copay, additional vital screenings and tests for women.

These services are based on recommendations from the Institute of Medicine using input from independent physicians, nurses, scientists and other experts and evidence-based research.

Group health plans and issuers that have maintained grandfathered status are not required to cover these services. In addition, certain nonprofit religious organizations, such as churches and schools, are not required to cover these services. The Obama administration will continue to work with all employers to give them the flexibility and resources they need to implement the healthcare law in a way that protects women’s health while making common-sense accommodations for values such as religious liberty, according to the HHS news release.

For women who are pregnant or nursing, the new preventive services include gestational diabetes screening and breast-feeding support, counseling and supplies. Health services already provided under the ACA include folic acid supplements for women who may become pregnant and Hepatitis B and anemia screening for pregnant women.

Women Medicare beneficiaries already could receive such preventive services as annual wellness visits, mammograms, bone mass measurement for those at risk of osteoporosis and diabetes screening. Approximately 24.7 million women with Medicare used at least one free preventive service in 2011, including the new annual wellness visit, according to HHS.

To learn more about preventive care under the ACA, visit www.healthcare.gov/prevention. For information about the HHS report on the number of adult and adolescent women eligible for preventive services at no charge after Aug. 1, visit http://1.usa.gov/NiEjSn.