Mammyograms

[rudywoofs (Pam)]

Okay, the word is *really* "mammograms" but I can't tell you how many times my patients call to schedule their Mammyograms....kinda feels like being taken back to Gone With the Wind... Tara's Theme

There's a very good note in Suzanne Sutton's thread about healthful foods to eat to help prevent breast cancer. But there is a very big problem being addressed now on the declining rate of mammograms: Mammogram Rates Dropping Nation-Wide

The authors (American Cancer Society) don't seem to be able to figure out why women don't want to do their mammograms. While there are a number of reasons given - fear, pain, finances, one thing that was not mentioned is the cost to the *facility* providing mammograms.

One of the big factors not mentioned is the increasingly ominous closing of the mammographic portion of imaging facilities. I don't blame them. For each mammogram done, the facility actually loses money. MAMMOGRAPHY IS NOT A REVENUE GENERATOR! The loss of money is even more with patients who have implants because twice as many images need to be done.

Medicare only allows around $68 per exam. That does not even begin to cover the cost of the technologist's time, the film, chemicals, equipment, radiologist's reading, the annual Health Physics report (over $1000), the State and Federal Annual Inspection (over $1000). Digital mammography has an even higher overhead.

$68 is laughable. Some other insurances allow more, but it still does not cover the cost. Yet some women are adamant that they should have the right to mammography if they so choose. Look at the Komen Foundation.....for the money they receive, many women could have mammograms - but the money seems to be *lost* to research and administration. So who absorbs the cost of these very un-cost-effective exams? If the patient has insurance, and most mammography patients have some sort of coverage, it is the facility who has to eat the deficit.