Breast cancer screening used to be something that pretty much everyone could agree upon. Now it is one of the more confusing and contentious areas in health care, with myriad laws and guidelines leaving many women and their doctors bewildered. Meanwhile, insurers are scrambling to keep up with state regulations and taking heat for being stingy with their coverage.
Partly because the results from the underlying research are variable and open to several interpretations, different organizations have different recommendations on what age women should begin getting mammograms and how often they should get them. This much is settled: Conventional mammograms are now covered at no cost to the patient under the ACA. A few states are now requiring insurers to cover breast tomosynthesis—more commonly known as 3D mammography—but in most parts of the country, women have to pay for the newer 3D technology out of pocket.
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