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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Friday, June 1, 2001 		Contact: HCFA Press Office
(202) 690-6145

HHS APPROVES SIX STATE PLANS
TO INSURE WOMEN WITH BREAST OR CERVICAL CANCER

HHS Secretary Tommy G. Thompson today approved six new states' applications for a new federal program that allows them to offer Medicaid benefits to uninsured women who are diagnosed with breast or cervical cancer through a federal screening program.

Utah, Idaho, South Dakota, Illinois, Indiana and Montana are the most recent states to take advantage of the federal Breast and Cervical Cancer Prevention and Treatment Act (BCCPT) that was signed into law in October 2000. Rhode Island, New Hampshire, West Virginia and Maryland were the first four states to take advantage of this new program. The law extends the full Medicaid benefit package to women who were screened and found to need treatment through the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's (CDC) National Breast and Cervical Cancer Early Detection Program. To qualify for the new program, women must be under age 65, not eligible for Medicaid and without creditable health care coverage.

Participation in the BCCPT is optional for states. However, states that do offer the benefit will receive an enhanced matching rate for women who enroll.

Thompson also announced today that he will write to the governors of the remaining states to encourage them to take advantage of this new program.

"I am proud of the action we are taking today to assure that women who are fighting these diseases will get the help they need," said Thompson. "This new program meets the administration's goal of allowing states to exercise the options they believe will best benefit their citizens. I hope other states will soon follow in the footsteps of these six states."

Since the CDC program began in 1990, more than 2.7 million breast and cervical cancer screening tests have been provided to more than 1.7 million women. Under the BCCPT law, these women may now be eligible for Medicaid benefits for the duration of their cancer treatment.

"Before this law," Thompson said, "uninsured women could get a cancer diagnosis, but without health insurance, they could not afford the care they needed. That won't happen now."

For more information about this new optional program, go to cms.hhs.gov/bccpt/ and www.cdc.gov/cancer/nbccedp/index.htm

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Note: All HHS press releases, fact sheets and other press materials are available at www.hhs.gov/news.