House approves mastectomy bill

On Wednesday the House Energy and Commerce Committee approved a bill (HR 758) by voice vote that would mandate minimal hospital-stay coverage for women undergoing breast cancer surgery.

The Breast Cancer Patient Protection Act of 2007 would require health insurance companies to pay for a minimum hospital stay if a patient requires hospitalization after a mastectomy, lumpectomy or lymph node dissection. Under the bill, health plans also would be barred from restricting hospital stay benefits to less than 48 hours for a patient who has a mastectomy or lumpectomy and to less than 24 hours for a patient who has a lymph node dissection.

With everything else that’s been in the news for the past few days I haven’t seen much coverage of this.