{"id":1438,"date":"2019-03-27T04:39:58","date_gmt":"2019-03-27T04:39:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.sportsnewsforyou.com\/?p=1438"},"modified":"2019-03-27T04:39:58","modified_gmt":"2019-03-27T04:39:58","slug":"heres-how-hard-it-is-to-get-a-mammogram-in-america","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/googmn.com\/?p=1438","title":{"rendered":"Here’s How Hard It Is To Get A Mammogram In America"},"content":{"rendered":"

After the House GOP<\/span> pulled its nearly universally reviled\u00a0proposed replacement\u00a0for\u00a0the Affordable Care Act, I confess\u00a0I celebrated. There was really nothing of merit to\u00a0the plan.<\/p>\n

Yet we can\u2019t forget that our health care system remains\u00a0deeply flawed, especially for women, and I should know: I\u2019ve spent the last year trying and failing to get a mammogram.\u00a0<\/p>\n

It\u2019s not that I revel in the idea of having my breasts smashed between two unyielding plates of glass.\u00a0I\u2019m actually not looking forward to this appointment whatsoever.\u00a0But, given that I am (a) over 40 years of age, (b) have a family history of breast cancer, (c) know my own mother\u2019s cancer was caught by a regular annual screening, and (d) have an odd spot on my left breast my doctor would like to keep tabs on, I\u2019ve gotten into the habit of having the procedure done twice a year.\u00a0<\/p>\n

I have stellar insurance and an odd spot on my left breast.<\/p>\n

But right now, despite having what\u2019s widely considered stellar health insurance that would happily cover the vast majority of the costs associated with these procedures, I cannot get an appointment. Let me explain.<\/p>\n

I was scheduled for my ordered mammogram about 14 months ago.\u00a0It took a few months to get the appointment, even with my history, but, in my experience, that is par for the course.\u00a0Unfortunately, I had to cancel that appointment the week before because of an unexpected work trip.\u00a0Luckily, the nice folks at the facility penciled me in for an appointment about 10 days later.<\/p>\n

Little did I know, it would be 10 days too late.\u00a0I went to my appointment, only to learn that the order for the mammogram had expired.\u00a0The woman at the front desk apologized profusely, but they would not be able to offer me the procedure that day.\u00a0Instead, she sent me home with the instructions to call my gynecologist for a new order and told me to immediately call the main scheduling line to book a new appointment.\u00a0Never mind the fact that gynecology and radiology are literally just two hallways down from one another at the facility.\u00a0They apparently can\u2019t talk to one another. It would have to be done by phone.\u00a0<\/p>\n

I tend to at least try to follow instructions when it comes to my health, so I did exactly as directed.\u00a0But, alas, I would soon learn that a phone call would not do the trick.\u00a0My OB-GYN could not update my mammogram order.\u00a0Unfortunately, it had been too long since my last \u201cwell-woman\u201d exam.\u00a0A new order would be impossible unless I came in for another old-fashioned, touchy-feely breast exam.\u00a0The nurse was sorry, but the system simply wouldn\u2019t allow it.\u00a0Would it be too much trouble to come back in for a 10-minute visit?<\/p>\n

It would not have been\u2014except even 10 minutes with a popular OB-GYN can be hard to come by.\u00a0The scheduling nurse remained apologetic.\u00a0But apparently only enough to squeeze me in for my new appointment nearly four months later.<\/p>\n

Some might say a mammogram simply isn\u2019t\u00a0worth the effort.\u00a0But they don\u2019t have my mother, a breast cancer survivor, regularly nagging them.<\/p>\n

After my doctor manually checked my breasts, she wrote up a new order for the mammogram.\u00a0I knew to expect a six-week wait, minimum, to get back on the radiology schedule.\u00a0But I tried to take it in stride.\u00a0That is, until\u00a0I was informed that my insurance would no longer be accepted at the doctor of my choice\u2014thanks to cost negotiation issues between the facility and my insurance company.\u00a0Not for a mammogram\u00a0or anything else, for that matter.\u00a0And, no, so sorry, that mammogram order would not be good at any other facility.\u00a0I\u2019d have to find a new OB-GYN and start from scratch.<\/p>\n

At this point, some might think the universe is telling them that a mammogram simply isn\u2019t worth the effort\u2014they can just make do with regular self-checks at home.\u00a0But they don\u2019t have my mother, a breast cancer survivor, regularly nagging them to get in there and get it done.\u00a0<\/p>\n

So I found a new OB-GYN.\u00a0Someone who is covered by my insurance. Here\u2019s how it goes: I wait for my appointment\u00a0and am finally handed a new and quite official-looking paper order for a mammogram with a quite strong admonishment from my doctor to schedule my screening immediately.\u00a0I had every intention of obeying.<\/p>\n

Even 10 minutes with a popular OB-GYN can be hard to come by.<\/p>\n

Except when I call\u00a0to schedule my mammogram, I learn\u00a0that my order, despite its authoritative look, is not valid.\u00a0It is missing an ICD-9 code and a checked box for \u201cleft, right, or bilateral.\u201d I will have to get myself a new order before I can be scheduled. Not only that, but I\u2019m told by a very unsympathetic voice on the other end of a phone line, radiology will not give me that mammogram, despite the new order or the length of time since my last screening\u2014unless they get all of the films from my old facility, a task that will require getting a DVD burned in person.\u00a0<\/p>\n

I\u2019m currently working on that last part.\u00a0First, I have to call my new facility back and figure out what format they need.\u00a0No one seems entirely sure, and\u00a0I\u2019ve gone unchecked all this time.\u00a0There is one Planned Parenthood facility on the other side of town, and going there may be what I end up doing. But I shouldn’t have to\u2014by making an appointment there, I\u2019ll be taking a spot\u00a0away from someone with lesser\/no insurance. And unless I plan to continue going there in the future, it breaks my continuity of care.<\/p>\n

I\u2019d like to tell you that my experience is an anomaly, but as I\u2019ve recounted this experience to other women I know, I\u2019m learning that it is not.\u00a0I shudder to think of the hoops that women with lesser means may have to go through to get this routine check, especially since we well know that catching cancer early is so critical to good outcomes, both medically and financially.\u00a0<\/p>\n

It seems nearly everyone has an opinion on\u00a0women\u2019s health\u2014especially right now.\u00a0A mammogram\u00a0may seem insignificant, an inconvenience, really.\u00a0Certainly, Senator Pat Roberts, a Kansas Republican, thought so little of them that he callously quipped, \u201cI wouldn\u2019t want to lose my mammograms,\u201d when a reporter asked him about potential cuts to \u201cessential health benefits\u201d in the now-pulled\u00a0American Health Care Act proposal.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

Though he\u2019s since apologized, I still don\u2019t get the joke.\u00a0A year is plenty of time for that spot to turn into something more sinister.\u00a0It\u2019s not a joke for my mother, whose cancer was caught early by a routine screening.\u00a0It\u2019s\u00a0not a joke for other friends who have suffered their own bouts with breast cancer, who know all too well what it feels like to wonder if their insurance will cover all or only part of their cancer treatments\u2014let alone important checks and screenings.\u00a0It\u2019s also not a joke to the families whose loved ones succumbed to the disease, leaving only their memory\u00a0and, too often, crushing medical debt behind.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s why I\u2019ll continue to call and pester and beg until I get my mammogram.\u00a0Not only to shut my mother up\u2014though\u00a0that part certainly won\u2019t hurt\u2014but because it shouldn\u2019t be this hard to do such a simple thing that is so critical to my long-term health.
\n <\/span>
\n<\/span>\n<\/p>\n

Image via BSIP \/ Contributor \/ Getty Images. This story has been updated to address the author’s access to Planned Parenthood.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

After the House GOP pulled its nearly universally reviled\u00a0proposed replacement\u00a0for\u00a0the Affordable Care Act, I confess\u00a0I celebrated. There was really nothing of merit to\u00a0the plan. Yet we can\u2019t forget that our health care system remains\u00a0deeply flawed, especially for women, and I should know: I\u2019ve spent the last year trying and failing to get a mammogram.\u00a0 It\u2019s…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1438","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/googmn.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1438","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/googmn.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/googmn.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/googmn.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/googmn.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1438"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/googmn.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1438\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/googmn.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1438"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/googmn.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1438"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/googmn.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1438"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}