A Closer Look at the Impact of Expanded Mammography Coverage in Missouri: An Interview with Amy Patel, MD

A new study examining the impact of Missouri state law changes that expanded coverage of screening mammography revealed very striking findings.

• Women with Medicaid were 45 percent more likely to have screening mammography in comparison to women with federally regulated Medicare Advantage (MA) plans.

• Missouri women with Medicaid were 64 percent more likely to have utilized digital breast tomosynthesis (DBT) in comparison to similar populations in states bordering Missouri that didn’t have the expanded mammography screening coverage.

• Overall, Missouri women with Medicaid were approximately nine percent more likely to utilize screening mammography in contrast to women from the aforementioned border states.

In a video interview, lead study author Amy K. Patel, M.D., discussed the results from the recently published research in the Journal of the American College of Radiology.

“Essentially, our findings demonstrate if you provide coverage for screening, patients will get screened,” emphasized Dr. Patel, the medical director of the Liberty Hospital Breast Care Center in Kansas City.

Dr. Patel says future research endeavors may explore long-term clinical outcomes for the patients in the study as well as possible savings stemming from earlier screening and earlier breast cancer detection. Other studies could examine related breast cancer screening legislation passed in 2020 and 2023 in Missouri, according to Dr. Patel.

“For me, this is just part one of hopefully many analyzes coming down the pike that overall, hopefully demonstrate the benefits of insurance coverage for our patients, not just in the state of Missouri, but like I said, hopefully we can see similar findings in states across the United States,” added Dr. Patel, an associate professor radiology at the University of Missouri-Kansas City.

(Editor’s note: For related content, see “Expanded Breast Cancer Screening in Missouri Led to 45 Percent Higher Likelihood of Mammography Screening for Women on Medicaid,” “New Study Examines Impact of Mammography in Detecting Pregnancy-associated Breast Cancer” and “New Mammography Research Examines Impact of High-Resolution DBT.”)

For more insights from Dr. Patel, watch the video below.