House Energy And Commerce Subcommittee Holds Hearing On Breast Cancer Bills

Main Category: Breast Cancer
Also Included In: Health Insurance / Medical Insurance
Article Date: 09 Oct 2009 - 4:00 PDT

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The House Energy and Commerce Committee Health Subcommittee on Wednesday heard testimony on four bills related to breast cancer detection, prevention and treatment, CQ HealthBeat reports.

A bill (HR 995) sponsored by Rep. Jerrold Nadler (D-N.Y.) would require health insurance plans to cover annual mammograms for women ages 40 and older. Plans would also have to cover annual screenings and MRIs for women at high risk of breast cancer. Nadler said that although the health reform legislation being debated in Congress aims to improve preventive care services, it could be years before the regulations take effect, and the overhaul "won't necessarily prevent these women from falling through the cracks."

Rep. Rosa DeLauro (D-Conn.) spoke in favor of her bill (HR 1691) to prohibit group health plans from restricting medically necessary hospital stays to less than 48 hours after mastectomies or breast-conserving surgeries and to less than 24 hours for lymph node dissections. A similar measure passed the House with 421 votes last year, but the Senate did not take up the legislation. DeLauro said that women are sometimes forced to leave the hospital too soon after surgeries because insurers will not pay for longer stays.

Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-Fla.), a breast cancer survivor, said her bill (HR 1740) would direct HHS to conduct a national awareness campaign about the risk of breast cancer in young women, with a focus on risks associated with particular ethnic and cultural groups. She called claims that the bill would detract from other efforts or take money from a national detection program "wrong," adding that she will "continue to fight for a multi-faceted approach to combating breast cancer."

The committee also heard testimony on Rep. Kathy Castor's (D-Fla.) bill (HR 2279) to require HHS to create a breast cancer treatment quality performance system to track and publicly disclose information on the quality of care offered by specific providers. Under the bill, providers' Medicare payments would be linked to performance by 2012.

Subcommittee Chair Frank Pallone (D-N.J.) said that many of the provisions in the four bills before the subcommittee "hopefully will be addressed in the larger health care reform bill," adding, "But I don't mean to suggest that takes away from the need to have this hearing today or to move forward on these bills" (Norman, CQ HealthBeat, 10/7).

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