Ob-Gyn Coding Alert

Earlier this year, we reported that several states had been approved under the federal Breast and Cervical Cancer Prevention and Treatment Act (BCCPT) to offer Medicaid coverage to women who were screened and needed treatment through the National Breast and Cervical Cancer Early Detection Program.
 

As of Aug. 27, 2001, nine more states have been approved by the Department of Health and Human Services to extend Medicaid coverage for breast and cervical cancer treatment to uninsured women. These states are Alabama, Georgia, Iowa, Mississippi, Missouri, North Dakota, South Carolina, Virginia and Washington.
 
Who Is Eligible?
 
 As we reported in July 2001, women under the age of 65 who test positive for cervical or breast cancer and are presently not eligible for Medicaid are candidates for the program. In addition, 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/bccpt and www.cdc.gov/cancer/nbccedp/index.htm.