Bipartisan members of the U.S. Senate introduced legislation Thursday to bolster use of mammography and other cancer screening methods amid widespread service slowdowns during the pandemic.
They pointed to a recent study from the Urban Institute, which found that more than one-third of adults have delayed or canceled care due to COVID-19. Bill sponsor Sen. Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn., was recently diagnosed with breast cancer at an early disease stage after putting off her exam for a year. But she is concerned that many others are living with undiagnosed cancer because of such skipped screenings.
The Preventive Care Awareness Act would launch a grant program, public health campaign and task force to encourage the use of mammography and other preventive services.
“As a result of delays in care due to the pandemic, doctors continue to see patients who have developed more serious conditions that could have been caught earlier,” Klobuchar—who is sponsoring the bill alongside Susan Collins, R-Maine, and others—said Oct. 28. “With this legislation, we have an opportunity to save lives.”
“These procedures, screenings, and immunizations are not only crucial to the wellbeing of individuals and families, but they can also help reduce Americans’ overall healthcare costs,” Collins added.
Under the proposal, the new task force would develop recommendations to improve preventive-care access during this and future public health emergencies. It would also task Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra with launching a campaign in concert with the CDC, surgeon general and the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services to encourage the use of imaging. States, territories, local governments and tribal organizations would also be eligible to receive grant funding.
Last year, the National Cancer Institute forecasted 10,000 excess U.S. cancer deaths over the next decade due to mammography and colonoscopy postponements during the pandemic.
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.