House Subcommittee To Consider Bill Expanding Breast Cancer Coverage For Hospital Stay

Main Category: Breast Cancer
Also Included In: Health Insurance / Medical Insurance
Article Date: 22 May 2008 - 9:00 PST

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The House Energy and Commerce Health Subcommittee on Wednesday is scheduled to vote on a bill (HR 758) that would require health coverage providers to expand hospital-stay coverage for women undergoing breast cancer surgery, CQ HealthBeat reports.

Under the Breast Cancer Patient Protection Act of 2007, insurers would be required to extend coverage for a minimum of 48 hours in the hospital, if requested by the patient and doctor, for a woman undergoing a mastectomy or lumpectomy. Bill sponsor Rep. Rosa DeLauro (D-Conn.) -- who has called for extended hospital-stay coverage since 1996 -- said the measure has 219 co-sponsors, as well as support from over half of the membership of the full House Energy and Commerce Committee. "We can begin to move this bill with the urgency it deserves," DeLauro said, adding, "The last thing a woman should be doing at that time is fighting with an insurance company." She said the bill would not amount to a coverage mandate because women could go home earlier than the 48-hour period. "This is a decision made by a patient and her doctor," DeLauro said.

Susan Pisano, a spokesperson for America's Health Insurance Plans, said the group is "concerned about putting treatment guidelines in statute." She added, "To the extent that you put a particular guideline in statute you freeze it there, and we think the approach that should be used is to look at what the science suggests is working well for women and what their particular preferences are." Pisano noted that the group has not seen much evidence "to suggest that women aren't being allowed to stay in the hospital for the amount of time being recommended." DeLauro said that industry opposition and Republican control of the House have previously stopped the measure from passing.

According to CQ HealthBeat, the subcommittee on Wednesday also is scheduled to consider a bill (HR 1157) that would authorize the director of the National Institute for Environmental Health Sciences to make grants for developing and operating research centers to study the environmental factors that might cause breast cancer. The bill, which has 268 co-sponsors, is similar to a measure (S 579) passed by the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee in February (Carey, CQ HealthBeat, 5/20).

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