A bill pending in the Texas legislature would, if adopted, require certain health insurance plans to cover three-dimensional mammograms for women.
House Bill 1036, sponsored by Democratic Representatives Senfronia Thompson, Ana Hernandez, Jodie Laubenberg, and Nicole Collier and Republican Representative J.D. Sheffield, proposes to add “breast tomosynthesis,” or three-dimensional mammography, to the definition of “low-dose mammography.”
The bill then would amend Insurance Code Section 1356.005(a) to state that a health benefit plan that provides coverage to a woman who is 35 years of age or older “must include coverage for an annual screening by all forms of low-dose mammography for the presence of occult breast cancer.” The term “all forms of low-dose mammography” would include three-dimensional mammography.
Current Texas law requires that health benefit plans that provide coverage to women 35 and older include coverage for an annual screening by low-dose mammography, but not by breast tomosynthesis.
The bill, which has been referred to the House Insurance Committee, provides that it would apply only to a health plan delivered, issued for delivery, or renewed on or after January 1, 2018.
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Victoria Spears
Victoria Prussen Spears is senior vice president of Meyerowitz Communications Inc., a law firm marketing communications consulting company. A graduate of Sarah Lawrence College and Brooklyn Law School, Ms. Spears was an attorney at a leading New York City law firm before joining Meyerowitz Communications. She may be contacted at [email protected].