To encourage people to be treated as early as possible, health reform added Section 2713 of the Public Health Service Act (PHSA). Section 2713 provides that a group health and a health insurance issuer (as to both group and individual coverage) must provide benefits for, and may not impose cost-sharing (with certain out-of-network exceptions) with respect to, preventive care and screening. 

This rule went into effect for plan years (policy years in the individual market) beginning on or after Sept. 23, 2010, and it affects all health plans that are not grandfathered health plans or that provide "excepted benefits."

Women's preventive service rules were generally effective Aug. 1, 2012, although there is an exemption for contraception and sterilization for religious organizations and a one-year delay for social organizations sponsored by religious organizations.