Musings: Insurers' breast coverage awful
A breast ultrasound image on a monitor. Women with dense breast tissue are being denied breast ultrasound coverage by Medicare, and other insurers are following suit, a reader writes. Credit: Getty Images/ftwitty
As a women’s health care provider for 34 years, I am angry as well as saddened regarding the denial of insurance coverage for breast ultrasound. The “powers that be” have decided that this procedure is not medically necessary unless a woman already has a palpable lump or abnormal mammographic finding.
It is a fact that women who have dense breast tissue might have small masses obscured because of this. These are the women who are now having breast ultrasound coverage denied by Medicare, and other insurers are following suit.
Do all women need supplemental screening with breast ultrasound? No. Has ultrasound been “over-ordered” as a supplemental breast screening? Yes.
But for women with dense breast tissue, as described by the interpreting radiologist, this procedure should be a standard of care. How about we prevent the “forest fires” and not wait until they are roaring breast malignancies?
Women need to let their voices be heard.
— Wendy Farrar, Miller Place
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