Mayo Clinic receives funding to continue program to diagnose uninsured women with abnormal mammograms

Monday, April 28, 2003

JACKSONVILLE, Fla., April 24, 2003 — It's an anxious time for a woman who has been told her mammogram or breast exam show an abnormality. This is especially true if she has to navigate a follow-up course of action without health insurance. Bristol-Myers Squibb Oncology has awarded $100,000 to Dr. Betty Mincey, an internist with Mayo Clinic's Multidisciplinary Breast Clinic. This will continue funding a program she initiated in 2000 that provides uninsured women follow-up diagnostic evaluations of abnormal mammograms and breast exams.

An initial, abnormal breast screening requires some type of subsequent diagnostic evaluation. It might be further mammographic views, ultrasound, MRI or a biopsy with ultrasound or mammographic guidance. It might be another mammogram in six months, but regardless, Mincey says women without insurance often wait and worry for months before a diagnosis is made.

Other women forgo breast screenings altogether, knowing they can't afford follow-up care if it's needed. "We know this is a problem for women who have no insurance," Mincey says. "We have screening mammography services available for those women. What we don't have are programs in place to help them when they have an abnormality on a screening mammogram or a screening breast exam. Their income is low, and their jobs don't offer benefits. They can't afford health insurance, and they certainly can't afford to pay for a diagnostic procedure like breast biopsy on their own."

Uninsured women in the Jacksonville metropolitan area with an abnormal result from a mammogram or screening breast exam may be referred to Mayo Clinic for a diagnostic evaluation under this program. Once referred, the woman is scheduled within one week for the needed test or tests, short of a surgical biopsy. Test results are shared with the physician who referred the woman. "The major benefit of the program is providing timely diagnosis after a screening breast evaluation identifies an abnormality," Mincey says. "In addition, participating women will have access to state-of-the-art diagnostic procedures that may otherwise be unavailable to them."

Since 80 percent of breast biopsies yield benign results, Mincey says minimally invasive tests covered under the program can spare many women an unnecessary surgical biopsy and related costs. Women also spend less time worrying about possible malignancy because of the wait time associated with scheduling a surgical procedure and getting back the results.

If the diagnosis is breast cancer, Mincey discusses this with the woman's referring physician. He or she recommends a treatment plan, which is often covered through a type of charity provision at the treating institution.

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