Title: BRST Act
Policy area: Armed Forces and National Security

Summary:
Better and Robust Screening Today Act or the BRST Act
This bill revises revises coverage of primary and preventive health services for women under the TRICARE program to include the use of digital breast tomosynthesis in breast cancer screening.

[Congressional Bills 116th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[S. 2944 Introduced in Senate (IS)]

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116th CONGRESS
  1st Session
                                S. 2944

   To amend title 10, United States Code, to include digital breast 
 tomosynthesis as a primary and preventative health care service under 
          the military health system and the TRICARE program.


_______________________________________________________________________


                   IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES

                           November 21, 2019

  Ms. McSally (for herself, Mrs. Shaheen, Mrs. Blackburn, Ms. Harris, 
Mrs. Gillibrand, Ms. Sinema, Ms. Warren, Mrs. Capito, Ms. Collins, Ms. 
 Klobuchar, and Mrs. Hyde-Smith) introduced the following bill; which 
     was read twice and referred to the Committee on Armed Services

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 A BILL


 
   To amend title 10, United States Code, to include digital breast 
 tomosynthesis as a primary and preventative health care service under 
          the military health system and the TRICARE program.

    Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the 
United States of America in Congress assembled,

SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

    This Act may be cited as the ``Better and Robust Screening Today 
Act'' or the ``BRST Act''.

SEC. 2. FINDINGS.

    Congress finds the following:
            (1) A woman born today has a one in eight chance of being 
        diagnosed with breast cancer at some time during her life.
            (2) Breast cancer is the most commonly diagnosed cancer and 
        the second leading cause of cancer death among women.
            (3) Death rates from breast cancer in the United States 
        have dropped 40 percent between 1989 and 2017 which translates 
        to 375,900 deaths avoided during those 28 years.
            (4) The decline in breast cancer death rates has been 
        attributed to improvements in treatment and early detection and 
        screening.
            (5) When breast cancer is detected in an early and 
        localized stage, the five-year survival rate is 99 percent, 
        further demonstrating why proper screening is essential.
            (6) Conventional mammography and digital mammography are 
        known to be less effective in the breast cancer screening 
        process for all women, including those with dense breast 
        tissue, than digital breast tomosynthesis screening.
            (7) The Medicare program under title XVIII of the Social 
        Security Act (42 U.S.C. 1395 et seq.) and the Veterans Health 
        Administration cover digital breast tomosynthesis mammography 
        screenings.
            (8) The TRICARE program (as defined in section 1072(7) of 
        title 10, United States Code) does not currently cover digital 
        breast tomosynthesis mammography screenings.

SEC. 3. IMPROVEMENT TO BREAST CANCER SCREENING UNDER THE TRICARE 
              PROGRAM.

    Section 1074d(b)(2) of title 10, United States Code, is amended by 
inserting before the period at the end the following: ``, including 
through the use of digital breast tomosynthesis''.
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