Ob-Gyn Coding Alert

Six additional states have applied for coverage under the federal Breast and Cervical Cancer Prevention and Treatment Act (BCCPT) that was signed into law in October 2000.  The law offers Medicaid coverage to women who were screened and found to need treatment through the National Breast and Cervical Cancer Early Detection Program.  

The program is optional, but the Department of Health and Human Services is encouraging all states to apply for the coverage. The six additional states offering the benefit to eligible women are Utah, Idaho, South Dakota, Illinois, Indiana and Montana. They join Rhode Island, New Hampshire, West Virginia and Maryland.

 

 

Women under the age of 65 who test positive for cervical or breast cancer and are not now eligible for Medicaid are candidates for the program. Also, qualified women must have no other applicable health insurance. The program will pay for the duration of their treatment for breast or cervical cancer under already-established Medicaid guidelines for coverage.  

The early-detection program, which began in 1990, has offered cervical and breast cancer screening tests to more than 1.7 million women, but according to the Centers for Disease Control, which administers the screening program, that number represents only 15 percent of eligible women. 

For more information about this program, go to www.hcfa.gov/medicaid/bccpthm.htm and www.cdc.gov/cancer/nbccedp/index.htm.