The D.C. Council has enacted on April 1 a legislation called the Breast Density Screening and Notification Act of 2018 which requires all women to be informed by health care facilities if they have dense breast tissue, after undergoing a mammogram.
D.C. has joined 37 other states in passing the bill to address the little known risk factor for breast cancer. The bill also brings insurance coverage for additional screenings for women with dense breast tissue. These provisions make the bill differ from similar laws enacted elsewhere in the country.
“Women with dense tissue need extra screening to catch earlier, more curable breast cancers but they cannot get the screening they need if they are not aware that they have dense tissue in the first place,” Vincent C. Gray, member of the D.C. Council who originally introduced the bill, said in a prepared statement from the Brem Foundation. Gray added that he was proud of this bill as it would empower residents to take control of their health care and undoubtedly save lives.
“The bill requires health care facilities to include information about breast density in federally required mammography reports,” he said.
Andrea Wolf, the executive director of the Brem Foundation, in a statement said that breast density is a real and strong risk factor for developing breast cancer.
Referring to the fact that D.C. tops the breast cancer-related death rates in the U.S., Wolf said “This legislation will empower women, save lives, and bring the D.C. community one step closer to a day when D.C. no longer claims the highest death rate from breast cancer.”
Commenting on the federal bill signed into law by President Donald Trump on February 15 that included a requirement of all mammography providers to give information about breast density in reports sent to patients and their physicians, Joseph J. Cappello, the executive director of both Are You Dense, Inc. and Are You Dense Advocacy, Inc., told Radiology Business in an interview that states can still make their own legislation stronger than the federal law, but they cannot make it weaker.