Sponsored by: Representative Rosa DeLauro (D-CT) and Senator Olympia Snowe (R-ME)
Summary: This bipartisan bill would end the practice of so-called "drive-through" mastecomies and require health insurance companies to cover a minimum 48-hour hospital stay for patients undergoing a mastectomy. A mastecomy is an invasive surgical procedure that removes part or all of a woman's breast in order to remove cancerous breast cells/tissue. Mastecomies save life lives, but can result in painful and lengthy recovery periods. Currently in the U.S., insurance companies are not required to cover adequate hospital stays for patients undergoing this invasive surgical procedure.
This bipartisan bill would end the practice of so-called "drive-through" mastecomies and require health insurance companies to cover a minimum 48-hour hospital stay for patients undergoing a mastectomy. A mastecomy is an invasive surgical procedure that removes part or all of a woman's breast in order to remove cancerous breast cells/tissue.
Mastecomies save life lives, but can result in painful and lengthy recovery periods.
Currently in the U.S., insurance companies are not required to cover adequate hospital stays for patients undergoing this invasive surgical procedure.
PPNT Position: Support - Breast cancer patients need protections from this unscrupulous practice to ensure they have enough time to properly recovering from a mastectomy. Since there are no current regulations requiring insurance companies to cover adequate hospital stays for patients undergoing mastecomies, many women are forced to leave hospital beds - against their wishes and those of their doctors - only a few hours after surgery, groggy from anesthesia and sometimes with drainage tubes still attached. HR 1691/S 688 would require insurance companies to cover a minimum 48 hour hospital stay for these patients, giving these women the humane and fair treatment they deserve.
Support - Breast cancer patients need protections from this unscrupulous practice to ensure they have enough time to properly recovering from a mastectomy.
Since there are no current regulations requiring insurance companies to cover adequate hospital stays for patients undergoing mastecomies, many women are forced to leave hospital beds - against their wishes and those of their doctors - only a few hours after surgery, groggy from anesthesia and sometimes with drainage tubes still attached.
HR 1691/S 688 would require insurance companies to cover a minimum 48 hour hospital stay for these patients, giving these women the humane and fair treatment they deserve.
Latest Action: 5/14/2009 - HR 1691 referred to House Health, Employment, Labor, and Pensions subcommittee. 3/24/2009 - S 688 referred to Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions committee.
5/14/2009 - HR 1691 referred to House Health, Employment, Labor, and Pensions subcommittee.
3/24/2009 - S 688 referred to Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions committee.
Recorded Votes: None.
