 | | | | Related Healthscout Videos | |
|
Page: << Prev | 1 | 2 The number of insurance plans that required a $10 co-pay or more, or a 10 percent or higher co-insurance payment per mammography, increased dramatically during the study period, according to Trivedi.
"In 2001, one woman in 200 was required to pay a co-pay. In 2004, the number required to pay a co-pay had increased to one in nine. That's a twenty=fold increase," he said.
Those co-pays made a difference in care. Screening rates were 8.3 percent lower in the cost-sharing plans versus plans with full coverage. Cost-sharing appeared to hit the poorest and least educated women the hardest.
Text Continues Below
Screening rates dropped 5.5 percent in insurance plans that introduced cost-sharing during the study period, yet increased by 3.4 percentage points in plans that maintained full coverage.
"A proportion of the population is very price-sensitive, and they tend to be the ones with fewer dollars to start. Apparently, we haven't been able to make our case to this group of women that $10 spent on mammography is money well-spent," said Dr. Peter Bach, a pulmonologist and epidemiologist at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in New York City.
Bach, who wrote an accompanying editorial in the same issue of the journal and was a senior advisor for Medicaid and Medicare Services, said this study shouldn't be interpreted to mean that all co-pays should be waived for preventive services. "We have to ask, what's the health gain? It doesn't matter the cost per test. Some preventive services really work, and some don't. We want people to use services that are of value."
Because "the value of breast cancer screening has been demonstrated in many studies," Trivedi said he does recommend waiving co-pays for mammograms. "Co-pays can deter women from getting mammograms. I would urge health plans to eliminate co-pays."
More information
To learn more about screening mammography, visit the National Women's Health Information Center.
Page: << Prev | 1 | 2
|
.gif)
