Washington, D.C. — Rep. Donald M. Payne, Jr. reintroduced the Colorectal Cancer Payment Fairness Act on May 16 to provide Medicare beneficiaries complete coverage sooner for colorectal cancer treatments they receive during routine cancer screenings. Instead of waiting until 2030 for such coverage, this bill requires Medicare to provide complete coverage for those treatments by the end of 2023.
“I reintroduced this bill to close this Medicare loophole immediately and save lives,” said Rep. Donald M. Payne, Jr. “Colorectal cancer is one of the deadliest cancers, but it has one of the highest survival rates if caught and treated early. We cannot wait until 2030 for Medicare beneficiaries to get their treatments covered because they need to get screened and treated for this deadly disease as soon as possible. I have worked diligently to increase colorectal cancer screenings since my father, Congressman Donald M. Payne, Sr., died from it in 2012. I do not want other families to lose their fathers and loved ones because of a lack of coverage.”
Rep. Payne, Jr.’s previous bill, the Removing Barriers to Colorectal Cancer Screening Act (H.R. 1570), requires Medicare to increase coverage of procedures to remove cancerous growths, or polyps, during routine colorectal cancer screenings. That bill was signed into law in 2020. Before the bill became law, Medicare provided complete coverage of the screenings, but not the removal of the polyps. Patients could face surprise charges if polyps were removed during the procedure.
Colorectal cancer kills more than 50,000 Americans annually and it is second only to lung cancer in U.S. cancer deaths. It is even more deadly for minorities. African Americans are 20 percent more likely to get colorectal cancer and 40 percent more likely to die from it compared to other groups. In addition, colorectal cancer rates have doubled for Americans under 50 years old in the last 30 years. With the passage of this bill, Medicare is held to the same standard of coverage as private health insurance companies, which must cover screenings and surgeries to remove polyps.
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