[00:00:00] Adam Walker: From Susan G Komen, this is Real Pink, A podcast exploring real stories, struggles, and triumphs related to breast cancer. We’re taking the conversation from the doctor’s office to your living room.
[00:00:17] Millions of women in the US can access no cost screening mammograms, but if the patient is at a higher risk of breast cancer, or the mammogram reveals an abnormality, the cost of imaging makes it unattainable for many. Komen has worked with state legislatures to eliminate the patient’s out-of-pocket costs.
[00:00:35] Unfortunately, not all states have passed such laws and federal legislation is still pending. Susan G Komens Center for Public Policy is championing legislation that addresses this significant flaw in healthcare insurance coverage and ensuring all people have access to high quality, affordable care. Here today to discuss
[00:00:53] komens public policy is Deandrea Newsome, regional Manager of State Policy and Advocacy at Susan G Komen. Deandrea, welcome to the show.
[00:01:03] Deandrea Newsome: So glad to be here, Adam.
[00:01:06] Adam Walker: Well I’m excited to talk about this. I think it’s really important. I’d love to get to talk about policy on the show and understand how we do that.
[00:01:13] And so you work to champion legislation every day to ensure that people have access to high quality care. So, can you explain Komen’s approach to addressing barriers that exist and how advocacy is important to make care accessible and affordable for people that are affected by breast cancer?
[00:01:30] Deandrea Newsome: For sure.
[00:01:31] Well, I’ll start off with how we create our priorities, right? We do this work every day across a team to develop a sense of making healthcare attainable for all, and especially making sure that those who need certain types of care get it. And so we create these priorities every two years. They focus on accelerating research, ensuring access to affordable, high quality healthcare for all patients.
[00:01:59] And just because a patient has healthcare it doesn’t mean that they can access care that they need. So we’re working every day to alleviate that patient burden by helping them access that care. One particularly, which I know we’ll talk a little bit about this later on, we’re doing this by eliminating the out-of-pocket costs for diagnostic and supplemental imaging.
[00:02:22] One of my proudest works working on the team here at Susan G Komen essentially diagnostic and supplemental imaging is the way to diagnose a patient with breast cancer. It is typically ordered by a physician for a patient who has found an abnormality in their mammogram and that they also are considered high risk, and that could be whether they have dense breast tissue or they have a family history of breast cancer.
[00:02:48] And so all of these different populations of people we’re trying to make sure that they have accessible healthcare.
[00:02:56] Adam Walker: I love that. I love that. Now, you mentioned you know, diagnostic and supplemental imaging. Is that like a typical mammogram? Like, like how, like give me more definition on that, if you don’t mind.
[00:03:07] Deandrea Newsome: Absolutely. So when a woman over 40 gets her mammogram, or if you were considered high risk, you may started getting mammograms a lot earlier. There could be an abnormality found on that mammogram, and then the physician will order for that particular patient, additional imaging. And so diagnostic is the type of imaging to diagnose breast cancer.
[00:03:33] And there’s also supplemental imaging depending on what your risk level is. So more specifically, when we write this type of legislation, we are writing to, for the population of people who are of high risk. So those who have a family history of breast cancer will be included in this category. Those who have dense breast tissue would be included in this category, and we want to make sure that they are able to get this additional imaging to find out if they have breast cancer.
[00:04:03] Because otherwise if we didn’t, they could have breast cancer, they could not have breast cancer, but we wouldn’t know. And their their status as far as having breast cancer will be unknown.
[00:04:16] Adam Walker: Okay. I got it. And so how much do these typical types of imaging cost and if they’re not covered by insurance?
[00:04:24] Deandrea Newsome: Yeah, so we have found with our patients here at Komen that they can range from roughly as low as $250, to as high as $1,200 and sometimes higher than that. We’ve heard $2,400 just for the imaging alone. And as you know, that’s really expensive. Right? We have found that some people were for forego getting their recommended additional imaging and screening to pay their bills because of just how
[00:04:57] expensive it is to access this type of imaging. And we have also found that those who do forego that type of and screening and imaging, they oftentimes, if they do have breast cancer they’re further kicking the can down the road of being diagnosed, making their treatment when they are diagnosed with breast cancer, more costlier to treat.
[00:05:21] Adam Walker: Yeah. You said you, you started with as low as 200. I was already nervous, but it’s as low as 200 and I 20. That’s a lot. That’s not good.
[00:05:33] Deandrea Newsome: And that’s relative to, you know, to your point, hearing $200 to me that’s the difference from paying your light bill to getting this necessary lifesaving imaging.
[00:05:44] So, which would you do?
[00:05:46] Adam Walker: I mean and then on your, up on the upper limit, it’s the difference between paying your rent or your mortgage and getting this, you know, imaging. I mean that’s major.
[00:05:54] Deandrea Newsome: Exactly.
[00:05:55] Adam Walker: Okay. Now what has, what is Komen Center for Public Policy? Like what’s been your approach to ensuring access for these critical services?
[00:06:06] Deandrea Newsome: Well, I am so happy to be a part of a fabulous team of superstars. We’re working on legislation and Congress on the federal level, and we’re also working on legislation on the state level just to eliminate the out of burden, out-of-pocket burdensome costs. For diagnostic and supplemental imaging. Namely, so our federal legislation is called the Access to Breast Cancer Diagnosis Act.
[00:06:31] I know that can be a little bit of a tongue twister. But just to remember, it is the A BCD Act. We have brought this legislation back and we’ve been hearing some some roadblocks here and there. And we’re working really hard on the federal level with our federal team. Aside from that, on the state team our state team has been working really hard.
[00:06:56] Can you believe that we have actually passed state level legislation that removes the out-of-pocket, out of pocket cost for diagnostic supplemental imaging in 32 states. More recently in the last few weeks we have passed this legislation. I know it’s really exciting and I’m really excited to talk about it obviously.
[00:07:17] But we more recently did this in Wisconsin. The Wisconsin governor signed our bill into law just a few weeks ago, and just right before that, a week ahead of that, we passed this legislation in Alabama, which is very huge because when we introduced this piece of legislation, it was the first time that we had ever introduced legislation in the state of Alabama.
[00:07:41] And what we’re finding is this legislation is not a, a issue amongst those who want the particular access to care. And it’s also not an issue amongst legislators because they see the need in some states we’ve had to fight which I know we’ll talk a little bit about the state that I work in and live in North Carolina.
[00:08:08] Where has not been as easy, but we’re finding that people want to make sure that people have healthcare. It’s just that simple. I love that. But yes, so we’re continuing our work in a few states. Yes. Yes. We’re continuing our work in a few states across the country. It’ll be very interesting if we get close to 50 states before passing the federal legislation.
[00:08:34] And all I can say is the states have spoken.
[00:08:37] Adam Walker: Now you mentioned North Carolina. Tell me more about the bill that’s being considered. What it would it allow women to obtain and more about, you know, why it’s so important.
[00:08:47] Deandrea Newsome: Yeah, so I’m really excited to work with our primary sponsor, representative Mary Belk and the House of Representatives here in North Carolina.
[00:08:57] She introduced House Bill 2 97, and just as I define diagnostic and supplemental imaging and the work around it that we’re doing on Team Komen, she has introduced legislation to do exactly that. So the bill would eliminate the out of burden out-of-pocket burdensome costs to diagnostic and supplemental imaging for all health insurance plans that are regulated in the state of North Carolina.
[00:09:24] So if you have insurance. Plan here in the state of North Carolina, this bill is exactly for you, and what it will do is allow someone who is over the age of 40, they get their mammogram, they may find an abnormality, they can then get this additional imaging without any additional cost. Or if they have, as I mentioned before, if they’re considered high risk whether they have dense breast tissue or they have a family history of breast cancer, that specific population will be able to access additional imaging out of out-of-pocket costs.
[00:10:01] Adam Walker: Wow. I love that. That’s good. Yeah. Good work. Good work on that. Love it. Love it. Now, how close do you feel this is to passing and can you talk more about kind of the overall impact that would have?
[00:10:15] Deandrea Newsome: Yeah, so this is the second time well, no, this is the third time actually that we’ve brought this bill back.
[00:10:23] We have passed this bill twice unanimously in the house and excuse me. No, I said three times. So we, this is the second time we brought this bill back and we passed the house. In North Carolina unanimously twice. We’ve been hitting some roadblocks in the Senate, but what I’m hearing is there’s some renewed appetite
[00:10:45] Around this bill. And some of the conversations that I’ve been having with senate legislators in the North Carolina, in North Carolina is that they see that the bill is written very well. It’s a good bill and it’s on many people’s many legislators radar. And so it’s just on us. We are continuing to
[00:11:06] give our messaging to legislators about how critically important this legislation is, and also how many patients will be impacted in the state of North Carolina. And I feel really good about this one, Adam. I think we might be able to get it across the finish line this year.
[00:11:24] Adam Walker: I hope so. I hope so. Now, let’s imagine I, you know, we’ve got listeners in North Carolina, maybe they want to get involved or maybe they’re in other states and they want to get involved in local
[00:11:33] similar legislation, how would they go about doing that?
[00:11:37] Deandrea Newsome: Very simply, our team our grassroots and advocacy team here at Komen has made it so easy. I’m gonna give you a link, Adam, to include in, in the notes for this particular show, but there is a link. For anyone that’s interested in staying engaged on our legislation, not only in North Carolina, but say you live in the state of Missouri and you want to know what we’re working on and how to get involved, we have this platform called being an advocacy insider, and essentially what that means is that you’ll receive email updates.
[00:12:10] Every month on what bills are moving and how you can engage engagement can look like anything from calling your legislator. And we’ll give you all of the talking points of how to talk about the bill and why you’re supporting the bill. And it could be, which I’m so glad to break here. It could be also sharing details about when we’re gonna be in person at the legislature
[00:12:35] talking about our bills and trying to get movement amongst the legislators. I’m glad to share with you. We have been confirmed and we’re really plan, we’re planning to be in the North Carolina state Senate advocating for our bill. In May, early May, you’ll have to get on the Advocacy Insider to know the date, but once you sign up, you’ll get that information and we’ll invite you to come join us as we advocate for our bill.
[00:13:06] Adam Walker: I love that. I love that. Well, Deandrea I love the work that you’re doing. It’s so important. I appreciate you joining us on the show to walk us through it and share how we can get involved as well into our listeners. I hope that you’ll consider getting involved. Deandrea, thank you for your work.
[00:13:21] Thank you for being a guest on the show today.
[00:13:25] Deandrea Newsome: Yes. Thank you so much for having me, Adam. Have a great rest of your day.
[00:13:33] Adam Walker: Thanks for listening to Real Pink, a weekly podcast by Susan G Komen. For more episodes, visit real pink.Komen.org. And for more on breast cancer, visit Komen.org. Make sure to check out at Susan G Komen on social media. I’m your host, Adam. You can find me on Twitter at AJ Walker or on my blog adam j walker.com.