HealthWatch Proposed Medicare Cuts Could Jeopardize Healthcare Breast cancer claims the lives of more than 40,000 women each year. Yet, the disease is curable if caught in its earliest stages. Mammograms can detect cancer cells even before a lump is felt in the breast, but now doctors say the future of this procedure is in jeaopardy.
Diagnostic mammograms are different from screening mammograms.
Diagnostic ones are performed after a problem is discovered in the breast. Dr. Tommy Cupples specializes in mammograms at Palmetto Richland Memorial Hospital. He says these cuts could drastically affect the quality of care women recieve. He says the cuts would result in fewer facilities performing the mammograms, less high-tech equipment would be purchased, and not as many doctors would be hired. Meanwhile, doctors would be over-worked and breast cancers could be missed.