Health insurance co-payments deter mammography use

PROVIDENCE, R.I. [Brown University] — When faced with even a modest health insurance co-payment for a mammogram, significantly fewer women receive these potentially life-saving breast cancer screenings, according to a new study by Brown University and Harvard Medical School researchers.

In this large-scale investigation of the relationship between health insurance co-payments and mammography rates, researchers found that screening rates were 8 percent lower among women with a co-payment than among women with full insurance coverage. Researchers at The Warren Alpert Medical School of Brown University, with a colleague from Harvard Medical School, publish their results in the current issue of the New England Journal of Medicine.

“The message is simple and it’s startling – a small co-payment for a mammogram can lead to a sharp decrease in breast cancer screening rates,” said Amal Trivedi, M.D., lead author of the study and assistant professor in the Department of Community Health at Alpert Medical School.

Brown University