Shekarchi bill would ensure mastectomy patients have insurance coverage for all surgery-related costs

PROVIDENCE – House Majority Leader K. Joseph Shekarchi’s first order of business for the new legislative session is a bill he introduced at the end of the 2017 legislative year to ensure mastectomy patients have insurance coverage for all costs related to their surgery.

“I wanted to begin the debate. I wanted to put the insurance companies on notice,” Shekarchi said.

In the years since Rhode Island required mastectomies be covered by insurance in 2005, he said, changes in federal and state health insurance laws have chipped away at the coverage provided to patients undergoing a mastectomy. While the surgery itself remains covered, ancillary necessities following surgery are not, including compression sleeves necessary for treating lymphedema, a chronic swelling condition that may occur after a mastectomy removes a person’s lymph nodes.

“It’s thousands of dollars,” Shekarchi said.

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The lack of coverage requires people to purchase co-insurance to make up the difference.

Last year, despite its late introduction on June 8, Shekarchi’s bill had 40 co-sponsors, including every female representative, according to the Legislative Press and Information Bureau. The bill, 2018-H 7002, is supported by the American Cancer Society’s Rhode Island chapter and the Gloria Gemma Breast Cancer Resource Foundation.

Shekarchi said a number of women he knows through his support of the Gloria Gemma Breast Cancer Resource Foundation have told him about being hit with unexpected costs relating to mastectomies, and that their stories made him feel strongly that the current law is not serving Rhode Island well enough.

“This is for all women, and all Rhode Islanders, because we all know someone who has had to fight breast cancer. One in eight women is diagnosed with it in her lifetime, making it the most common form of cancer among women. No woman – or man – who has to go through breast cancer and a mastectomy should also be burdened with high medical bills as a result,” Shekarchi said.

Rob Borkowski is a PBN staff writer. Email him at Borkowski@PBN.com.