About WPSI
What is WPSI?
The Women’s Preventive Services Initiative (WPSI) is a coalition of national health professional organizations and patient advocates with expertise in women’s health tasked with developing, reviewing and updating recommendations for the Women’s Preventive Services Guidelines. If the recommendations are adopted by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA), this helps ensure that women receive a comprehensive set of preventive services without having to pay a co-payment, co-insurance or deductible. The WPSI’s purpose is to improve adult women’s health across the lifespan.
This five-year cooperative agreement (2021-2026) is funded by HRSA and was awarded to the American College of Obstetricians & Gynecologists (ACOG) in 2016 and 2021.
Background and History
In 2011, HRSA worked with the National Academies of Science, Engineering, and Medicine (formerly known as the Institutes of Medicine (IOM)) to develop the initial Women’s Preventive Services Guidelines. Established with the aim of improving women’s health across the lifespan, and to complement, build upon, and fill gaps in existing guidelines provided by the United States Preventive Services Task Force (USPSTF), Bright Futures, and the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP), these guidelines on preventive health screenings and services guide clinicians in determining which services they should routinely offer to their patients. The guidelines now serve as the basis for insurance coverage at no cost-sharing to patients. The IOM’s initial eight preventive service recommendations, delineated in the final report, Clinical Preventive Services for Women: Closing the Gaps, serve as the basis for WPSI work. These recommendations are further described in Chapter 5 of the IOM’s final report.
The IOM recommended reviewing and updating the guidelines at least every five years. To support that goal, HRSA awarded ACOG a cooperative agreement to design and facilitate a collaborative process to review and recommend updates to the current HRSA-supported Women’s Preventive Services Guidelines. In support of this effort, ACOG is convening a coalition of national health professional organizations representing clinicians, patients, and academics to conduct a rigorous review of the current scientific evidence and recommend updates to the existing guidelines. This approach is similar to the cooperative agreement HRSA has in place with the American Academy of Pediatrics for the development and updating of the Bright Futures guidelines for well-child and adolescent care.
Download the WPSI 2016 final report to learn more about the program and the 2016 WPSI recommendations.
Our Methodology
In an effort to make the Women’s Preventive Services Initiative (WPSI) recommendation development process clear and transparent, an abbreviated summary of the Methodology is available by clicking the PDF below.
In addition to the coalition of clinician and patient organizations, the WPSI has partnered with physician scientists with extensive experience in systematic review methodology and clinical guideline development to conduct reviews and updates of the evidence for each topic under consideration.
Well-Woman Chart
WPSI Coding Guide
Patient Education
Social Media Tool Kit
