Michigan women 40 and older don't have to worry -- at least for now -- that their insurance won't pay for a mammogram.
Michigan law requires insurers to pay for an annual mammogram, beginning at age 40, as well as one so-called baseline mammogram between ages 35 and 40 for comparison purposes.
The law also requires insurers to pay for diagnostic services to find cancer, if something suspicious is found on a mammogram, as well as outpatient treatment, plastic surgery, counseling and physical therapy.
"Insurance companies can't just decide on their own" to drop mammography coverage, said Jason Moon, a spokesman for the Office of Financial and Insurance Information, which oversees the state's health insurance industry.
The mandate would require a change in state law before insurers could stop paying for mammograms, Moon said.
The news came as Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius said Wednesday that federal policy on who should get breast cancer screening has not changed.
Sebelius was reacting to a government panel's recommendation, released Monday, that most women don't need mammograms in their 40s and should get one every two years starting at age 50.
That recommendation was a break with the American Cancer Society's 20-year position that women should get mammograms starting at age 40.
In October, the Free Press ran a database of mammography centers that lists locations, fees and phone numbers. On Friday, the Free Press held a Web chat about the new mammography guidelines.
Contact PATRICIA ANSTETT: 313-222-5021 or panstett@freepress.com To see more of the Detroit Free Press, or to subscribe to the newspaper, go to http://www.freep.com Copyright (c) 2009, Detroit Free Press Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services. For reprints, email tmsreprints@permissionsgroup.com, call 800-374-7985 or 847-635-6550, send a fax to 847-635-6968, or write to The Permissions Group Inc., 1247 Milwaukee Ave., Suite 303, Glenview, IL 60025, USA.
Copyright (C) 2009, Detroit Free Press