Tricare covers MRIs for women at cancer risk
Staff report
Posted : Thursday Oct 18, 2007 16:36:25 EDT

Women at high risk for breast cancer can now get one of the best screenings and have it covered by Tricare.

The Tricare Management Activity recently changed its policy and now covers Magnetic Resonance Imaging screenings for women at high risk of developing breast cancer, according to an Air Force press release. Risk factors include being over 55 years old, having a family history of breast cancer and heavy alcohol intake, according to the American Cancer Society. The press release said a doctor can determine who qualifies as high risk.

Any woman meeting the criteria can have her MRI covered, retroactive to March 1.

“An MRI is a clearly superior tool for screening the highest risk women for breast cancer,” said Army Maj. Gen. Elder Granger, the Tricare Management Activity deputy director, in the press release. “We want these women to have every chance to detect any cancer at the earliest possible stages.”

As many as 178,480 new cases of invasive breast cancer will be diagnosed, and 40,460 people are expected to die from the disease in America this year, according to an Air Force press release. But not all victims will be women — the ACS estimated that in 2005, 1,690 new cases of invasive breast cancer were diagnosed in men in the U.S., and about 460 died from the disease. The disease is the second-leading killer among cancers in women, after lung cancer.

“The availability of MRI screenings does not reduce the importance of regular examinations,” Granger said. “All women over 39 years old need to get those annual mammograms. The key to dealing with cancer is early detection.”

More information is available at www.tricare.mil/pressroom...spx?fid=60 and www.cancer.org.

Ellie