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The Obama administration on Monday put health insurance companies on notice that they must cover all forms of female contraception, including the patch and intrauterine devices, without imposing co-payments or other charges. In the last month, the National Women’s Law Center and the Kaiser Family Foundation issued separate reports finding that insurers had often flouted a federal requirement to provide free coverage of birth control for women under the Affordable Care Act. (Pear, 5/11)

The Obama administration said Monday that health plans must offer for free at least one of every type of prescription birth control — clarifying regulations that left some insurers misinterpreting the Affordable Care Act’s contraceptive mandate. (Galewitz, 5/11)

Federal officials also said on Monday that health plans must cover screening, counseling and genetic testing if a woman has an increased risk for breast cancer because of a gene mutation. The guidance said insurers must provide those women who don’t have BRCA-related cancer with preventive screening for the BRCA-1 or BRCA-2 gene at no out-of-pocket cost. The guidance says, too, that health plans cannot impose cost-sharing for anesthesia services related to colonoscopies, which are covered as a preventive service. (Radnofsky, 5/11)

From contraception to colonoscopies, the Obama administration Monday closed a series of insurance loopholes on coverage of preventive care. The department of Health and Human Services said insurers must cover at least one birth control option under each of 18 methods approved by the FDA — without copays. (Alonso-Zaldivar, 5/11)

The Obama Administration reiterated Monday that insurers and insurance plans have to cover at least one form of contraception in each of the now-18 methods that the FDA has approved at no cost to consumers, as required under the Affordable Care Act. The coverage must include the patient education and counseling needed to provide the birth control too. Recent studies by the Kaiser Family Foundation and NWLC found many insurers were charging women for birth control in violation of Obamacare rules. (O'Donnell, 5/11)

The Obama administration issued new guidance Monday in an attempt to clarify what preventive services health plans are required to cover under the Affordable Care Act — particularly contraception. The agency also outlined when insurers should cover genetic tests for breast cancer for at-risk women. (Villacorta, 5/11)

Insurance companies have to pay for birth control, mammograms and well-woman visits without charging co-pays and without a fight, the federal government said in a stern reminder Monday. ... Insurance plans also have to cover contraception and preventive services for dependent children on their parents' account. "This includes recommended services related to pregnancy, including preconception and prenatal care." (Fox, 5/11)