HR0971 100TH GENERAL ASSEMBLY

HR0971 LRB100 21471 MST 38204 r

HOUSE RESOLUTION

WHEREAS, One in eight women will be diagnosed with breast cancer during their lifetime; and

WHEREAS, Women whose breast cancer is diagnosed early before it has spread have an almost 100% chance of being alive five years later; and

WHEREAS, Early detection of breast cancer and timely follow up, coupled with guideline concordant treatment is critical to survival from breast cancer; and

WHEREAS, A University of Illinois at Chicago study found that poor women, minority women, and women without any private health insurance were far more likely to have their breast cancers missed on a screening mammogram; and

WHEREAS, Both University of Illinois at Chicago and Metropolitan Chicago Breast Cancer Task Force studies have found significant variation in the quality of mammography, with minority women, poor women, and women with less education more likely to receive poorer quality mammography resulting in later stage diagnosis; and

WHEREAS, Both University of Illinois at Chicago and the Metropolitan Chicago Breast Cancer Task Force studies find significant fragmentation of care experienced by poor women entering the healthcare system at lower resourced facilities, with delays experienced in follow up and loss to follow up resulting in poorer breast cancer outcomes for poor women, minority women, and women with less education; and

WHEREAS, To address the challenges with mammography quality, two pieces of prior legislation (Public Act 95-1045 and Public Act 97-638) were signed into law and the Department of Healthcare and Family Services established a statewide mammography quality program with two rounds of data successfully collected; and

WHEREAS, The Department of Healthcare and Family Services has not administered this women's healthcare quality improvement program required by law for two years and has no internal capacity to administer such a program; and

WHEREAS, To address the challenges with respect to quality of breast cancer treatment and fragmentation of care and the barriers to receiving guideline concordant breast cancer treatment, Governor Rauner signed the Breast Cancer Excellence in Survival and Treatment act into law (Public Law 99-433) on August 21, 2015; and

WHEREAS, The Department of Healthcare and Family Services has failed to implement the BEST Act including implementation of a breast cancer treatment quality program as required by the BEST Act, provisions in the BEST Act that require that all networks of care have patient navigation for cancer patients and that the Medicaid breast cancer patient navigation programs be expanded; nor has the Department ensured that every women in Medicaid is being offered and encouraged to utilize the mammography coverage proscribed in the Public Aid code that requires baseline coverage of mammography at age 35-39 and annual mammography at age 40 onward; therefore, be it

RESOLVED, BY THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES OF THE ONE HUNDREDTH GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF THE STATE OF ILLINOIS, that we urge the Governor and the Department of Healthcare and Family Services by July 1, 2018 to contract with an external expert entity that has prior experience collecting statewide mammography quality data to perform the Department's quality improvement program and to provide each participating facility with a mammography quality report annually; such entity should be reimbursed at an annual rate of $230,000; and be it further

RESOLVED, That by July 1, 2018, the Department of Healthcare and Family Services is urged to contract with an external expert entity that has prior experience collecting breast cancer treatment data from safety net providers in Illinois and is a federally designated Patient Safety and Quality Improvement Organization as of January 1, 2018; this entity should be responsible for developing a breast cancer treatment quality program and will collaborate with the State's cancer registry in so doing; such entity should be reimbursed at an annual rate of $350,000; and be it further

RESOLVED, That that the Department of Healthcare and Family Services is urged to immediately implement all other components of the BEST Act and to work with breast cancer advocates and breast cancer clinical experts to ensure that the Illinois Medicaid program provides the highest quality breast cancer screening and treatment to women served by Illinois Medicaid; and be it further

RESOLVED, That suitable copies of this resolution be delivered to the Governor and to the Director of Healthcare and Family Services.