MANATEE — As the recession deepens, Manatee County Health Department reports an increasing number of women seeking low-cost cancer screenings is stretching scarce funding dollars.
“Our numbers are way up, and it’s because women are losing their jobs and their insurance,” said Jan Chulock, local director of the Florida Breast and Cervical Cancer Early Detection Program funded through the Centers for Disease Control.
“Our goal this fiscal year, which runs from July 1 to June 30, was to screen 745 women,” said Chulock, a registered nurse. “By the end of December we had already screened 786 women.”
The state screening program is available to women 50 and older with no health insurance and whose income is within 200 percent of the federal poverty guidelines.
A grant from the Susan G. Komen For the Cure Foundation provides 300 additional mammograms for women between 40 and 49, but makes exceptions for younger women if they have problems or a history of breast cancer.
The health department offers screenings in-house and through partnerships with private diagnostic services in Manatee, Sarasota, DeSoto, Charlotte, Lee, Collier, Hendry and Glades counties.
“Our providers know we don’t have endless funding,” Chulock said. “So they agree to do screenings at the Medicaid rate, which stretches the funding dollars.”
Dr. Angus W. Graham, Jr. of Manatee Diagnostic Center is one of those providers.
“The reason we are very willing and eager to help is because we consider ourselves to be part of the health care community and as such we have to provide services where they are needed,” said Graham. “This must be done.”
There is an application process, which the providers or health department staff help clients fill out. The health department then pays for the mammogram and any other diagnostic test needed through the grant programs.
“Some patients are referred through the American Cancer Society, others go first to their doctors or to a provider because they have found a suspicious lump and they can’t pay,” she said. “The provider then sends the patient to us.”
Such was the case with Lana Hassett of Nokomis who found a lump in July but delayed seeking help because she had no insurance.
Hassett’s sister encouraged her to look into the CDC-funded program. In October, Hassett scheduled a mammogram at Sarasota Memorial Hospital’s Institute of Advanced Medicine, which qualified her for the program. That mammogram found an abnormality. Hassett was immediately scheduled for a biopsy which revealed she had an aggressive form of breast cancer that had spread to her liver, bones and brain.
The positive diagnosis meant Hassett was eligible for care under Medicaid provided by the Mary Brogan Treatment Act.
“Don’t wait to get a mammogram even if you don’t have the money,” Hassett warns. “If you don’t have insurance or can’t pay, still go. They will find a way to help. Don’t wait as long as I did.”
Chulock agrees.
“Finding a cancer early can be the difference between life and death,” said Chulock.
But the funding the health department receives does not begin to meet the need, says Donna Keith, a health department supervisor.
“We estimate that between 30,000 to 40,000 women in the eight counties we serve are eligible for free mammograms but we get funded to service just 745 through the state and 300 more through the Komen foundation,” said Keith. “With the economy the way it is more women need our services and the money is really tight.”
Still, the health department is doing everthing it can to help each woman who meets those eligibility guidelines. “We couldn’t do it without our providers who are willing to partner with us to stretch those funding dollars,” Keith said.
For more information call the Florida Breast and Cervical Cancer Early Detection hotline at (800) 451-2229 or Manatee County Health Department at 748-0747, ext. 1333.
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