Mammogram Madness
By: Pamela LeaveyThere’s been a lot of controversy in the past couple of days over the release of a new recommendation from the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force about the age women should start getting mammograms.
The panel’s new recommendations represent a significant departure from existing guidelines, and have caused widespread concern since they were announced on Monday.
Personally I’m just going to say, that I have 3 friends who each had breast cancer in their 40’s and getting their mammograms saved each of them. Given that, I don’t think the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force guideline is helpful. Neither does HHS Secretary Sebelius who ”told women to ignore the new advisory recommendations for now.”
“The U.S. Preventive Task Force is an outside independent panel of doctors and scientists who make recommendations. They do not set federal policy and they don’t determine what services are covered by the federal government,” said Sebelius in a written statement.
“Our policies remain unchanged,” she said of the federal government. ” Indeed, I would be very surprised if any private insurance company changed its mammography coverage decisions as a result of this action.”
I just don’t agree that the new guidelines “make sense.”
Sphere: Related ContentTags: 3 Friends, Age Women, Breast Cancer, Controversy, Couple Of Days, Coverage Decisions, Doctors, Federal Government, Hhs Secretary, Independent Panel, Insurance, Madness, Mammograms, Preventive Services, Preventive Task Force, Private Insurance Company, Scientists, Sebelius
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Today at noon ET Dr. Len Lichtenfeld of the American Cancer Society will be hosting an online chat on his blog. Check it out at http://www.cancer.org/aspx/blog/Comments.aspx?id=332. Hopefully he can answer my questions and all of yours.
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