Tom Harkin: “What we find is when a woman who is Medicare eligible who gets screened for breast cancer and, under the screening…”

“What we find is when a woman who is Medicare eligible who gets screened for breast cancer and, under the screening mammography, there are some indications possibly that she might have breast cancer, she now needs to get a diagnostic screening. The waiting time is up to 6 months because the rates are so low for the reimbursement for diagnostic screening of mammographies. What we have done is put women in this very terrible position. They get screened and there is some indication they might have breast cancer, and yet they then cannot get the diagnostic screening they need. What my amendment would do, basically, is increase the technical portion of diagnostic mammograms performed in hospital-based facilities by removing this procedure from the ambulatory payment categories and placing it in the Medicare fee schedule.”