Research Areas

Compliance with Mammographic Screening Guidelines from an Administrative Claims Database

Investigators: Milayna Subar, MD; Scott Lust, RPh; Wenlong Lin, MS*

*Affiliations: Medco Research Institute, LLC
Presented on December 9, 2010 by Dr. Milayna Subar at the 33rd Annual San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium

Study in Brief:
- The purpose of this study was to evaluate the prevalence and frequency of mammography screening among insured women ages 40 and older.

- The analysis looked at mammography claims for more than 1.5 million women who were continuously insured between 2006 and 2009.

- The study found that the average annual rate of mammography over the four-year period for women ages 40 and older was 50%, while nearly 40% of women ages 50 and older had fewer than two mammograms in four years.

- When frequency of mammographic screening was measured, it was found that 78% of women 40 and older had at least one mammogram in a four-year period. However only 16% of 40-49 year-olds and 23% of 50-64 year-olds had four mammograms over the four-year time-frame.

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Author Perspectives

Milayna Subar, M.D.

National Practice Leader, Oncology
Medco Health Solutions, Inc.

A specialist in internal medicine, medical oncology, and hematology, Subar is the National Practice Leader for the Medco Oncology Therapeutic Resource Center.

When the U.S. Preventive Service Task Force (USPSTF) issued recommendations in November 2009 calling for biennial mammograms to detect breast cancer for women starting at age 50 rather than yearly screenings beginning at age 40 -- which had previously been the guidelines followed -- a national uproar over the issue ensued. Surveys done at that time showed that a vast majority of women strongly disagreed...