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Medicare Plans to Pay for Lung Cancer Screening

| November 11, 2014 Comment

Medicare Plans to Pay for Lung Cancer Screening – Medicare plans to start paying for lung cancer screening for people at high risk, a move that advocates say could save thousands of lives every year by catching the disease earlier.

The Centers for Medicare Medicaid Services made a formal proposal Monday to start paying for low-dose CT scans to look for lung tumors for people at high risk of the world’s No. 1 cancer killer. Laurie Fenton Ambrose, president and CEO of Lung Cancer Alliance said, “I think after a long effort to get to this point, CMS got it right”.

“This has the potential of being one of the most significant cancer mortality-reducing efforts to date. We are finally focusing on what is a quarter of all cancer, and that’s lung cancer,” Ambrose told NBC News.

Many private insurers already pay for lung cancer screening.

The US Preventive Services Task Force (USPSTF) recommends that heavy smokers who are at least 55 should have an annual CT scan to check for lung cancer. The recommendations could apply to about 9 million Americans.

CMS would cover people ages 55-74 who have smoked at least a pack a day for 30 years, or the equivalent. The decision is now open for a 30-day comment period.

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