December 17, 2015 - Washington, D.C. – The Medical Imaging & Technology Alliance (MITA) commends Congress for including the Protecting Access to Lifesaving Screenings (PALS) Act (H.R. 3339 and S. 1926) in the Omnibus Spending bill and urges its final passage, which would place a two-year moratorium on implementation of the United States Preventive Services Task Force (USPSTF) draft recommendations on breast cancer screening.

“We are concerned that the breast cancer screening recommendations put forth by the USPSTF would severely diminish women’s access to mammography, a screening exam that has been proven to save lives through the early detection of breast cancer,” said Patrick Hope, MITA’s Executive Director. “This legislation provides an opportunity to safeguard access to this important life-saving technology and eliminate confusion created by the various breast cancer screening guidelines.”

The draft USPSTF recommendations state that only women aged 50 to 74 should receive biennial mammography screenings and that individual circumstances should dictate mammography screenings for women between the ages of 40 to 49. However, the American College of Radiology (ACR), the Society of Breast Imaging (SBI) and the National Comprehensive Cancer Network (NCCN) continue to recommend annual mammograms for women beginning at age 40.


“If the current USPSTF recommendations are finalized, private insurance could severely restrict coverage and impose burdensome cost sharing for this effective, routine screening exam, which would be particularly detrimental for low-income women.”
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The Medical Imaging & Technology Alliance (MITA), a division of NEMA, is the collective voice of medical imaging equipment, radiation therapy and radiopharmaceutical manufacturers, innovators and product developers. It represents companies whose sales comprise more than 90 percent of the global market for medical imaging technology. For more information, visit www.medicalimaging.org. Follow MITA on Twitter @MITAToday.

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