Higgins calls for increased lung cancer screening

Buffalo, NY (WBEN) Congressman Brian Higgins introduced legislation aimed at increasing access to lung cancer screening by providing grants that support the establishment and maintenance of new lung cancer screening registries.

"Lung cancer is an incredibly dangerous disease and remains the deadliest form of cancer in the United States. Cancer screening is an absolute priority when it comes to saving lives. Screening rates for lung cancer are incredibly low, and our new bill will help healthcare providers, like Roswell Park Comprehensive Cancer Center, increase our communities' access to lung cancer screening," says Higgins.

Higgins' bill, the Lung Cancer Screening Registry and Quality Improvement Act (HR107) helps alleviate the bottleneck in screening access by providing $2 million in grants annually for five years to assist with the creation and maintenance of a free lung cancer screening registry accessible to lung CT providers nationwide, eliminating one of the most significant barriers to lung cancer screening. Additionally, the bill would provide $1 million annually for five years to encourage the development of quality measures, using registry data, in order to improve the quality of care and patient outcomes in the lung cancer screening space.

Cancer screening registries are databases that document the results of testing and are essential for healthcare professionals and researchers to understand lung cancer. Before a doctor can perform a lung cancer screening CT, the facility must have access to a lung cancer screening registry approved by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS). Currently, there is only one CMS-approved lung cancer screening registry.