Preventive care is covered by most health insurance plans, that is things like annual checkups, vaccinations and routine screenings.

But if anything is discovered about your health that prompts further action, be prepared to pay something to your healthcare provider.

As part of the Affordable Care Act, certain types of free preventive care became mandatory, with the goal of spurring patients to get the care they need and catch problems early.

But if additional tests or procedures enter the picture, that visit might now be considered a diagnostic one. For example, let’s say you’re visiting your primary care physician for an annual checkup, but you mention a new symptom. Your doctor may order additional tests that are outside the scope of a routine visit.

By the same token, a routine screening such as a mammogram or colonoscopy could shift to diagnostic if issues come up.

And colonoscopies are worth mentioning because they are expensive. The average price for a colonoscopy in Nashville, Tenn., is $2,259, according to Trilliant Health.

Shawn Stack, policy director with the Healthcare Financial Management Association, said you first want to check with your insurance company to make sure that they cover the preventive screening colonoscopy at your age group, and if you are 45 or over you should be eligible.

But that screening can turn into a diagnostic colonoscopy if indeed polyps are found and removed during that procedure. So, in advance, you want to ask your health insurer what they would cover under those circumstances.