Bills in both chambers of Congress would protect payment for mammography screenings before age 50
Bipartisan bills introduced in both chambers of Congress would preserve payment for mammography screenings before age 50, lawmakers announced recently.
The Protecting Access to Lifesaving Screenings Act proposes to extend a congressional moratorium on honoring controversial recommendations from the U.S. Preventative Services Task Force. USPSTF, an influential healthcare advisory group that often dictates payment policy, recommends regular screenings starting at age 50, contrary to the views of radiologists and other specialtists.
Lawmakers’ proposal would delay these recommendations, safeguarding insurance coverage of annual breast imaging.
“The PALS Act is important legislation that would ensure that women as young as 40 can get mammograms without worrying about costly deductibles or cost-sharing,” Sen. Jeanne Shaheen, D-N.H., who is co-sponsoring the Senate bill alongside Sens. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., and Marsha Blackburn, R-Tenn., said July 21. “I urge Senators on both sides of the aisle to support our commonsense bipartisan effort to protect the health of women.”
USPSTF has for years advised against annual mammograms for women in their 40s, recommending every-other-year screening between the ages of 50-74. ACR, the Society for Breast Imaging and other physician groups, meanwhile, endorse yearly check-ins starting at 40. More than 45,000 women ages 40-49 were diagnosed with the disease in 2019, according to the American Cancer Society. And failing to extend the current moratorium beyond its Jan. 1, 2023, expiration would protect mammography coverage for 22 million women, experts estimated.
Shaheen and colleagues’ proposal would push the pause until 2028 while clarifying that service women should receive the same screening benefit. The legislation specifies “all modalities” including breast tomosynthesis, clearing up any previous ambiguity. Reps. Debbie Wasserman Schultz, D-Fla., and Fred Upton, R-Mich., introduced the House version of the bill.
The American College of Radiology said Thursday it supports the bill and will advocate for it in both chambers.
“Women now need greater access to screening, not less,” Stamatia Destounis MD, chief of the ACR’s Breast Imaging Commission, said in a statement. “Extending the PALS Act protections will avoid a needless decline in screening and thousands of unnecessary deaths each year as a result of implementation of the ill-advised 2016 United States Preventive Services Task Force recommendations.”
Marty Stempniak has covered healthcare since 2012, with his byline appearing in the American Hospital Association's member magazine, Modern Healthcare and McKnight's. Prior to that, he wrote about village government and local business for his hometown newspaper in Oak Park, Illinois. He won a Peter Lisagor and Gold EXCEL awards in 2017 for his coverage of the opioid epidemic.