Studies have demonstrated that women with dense breast tissue are prone to having a higher rate of contracting breast cancer.
Eighteen states have endorsed dense breast notification laws, and 10 more have laws currently in the works, waiting to be approved and passed. But exactly who is supposed to do the reporting and what they are supposed to tell patients differs from state to state, according to doctors at the Department of Radiology at the University of Michigan School of Medicine in Ann Arbor.
Their review of the current state of breast density notification legislation in the United States is part of an imaging screening series published in the Journal of the American College of Radiology.
In the state of Nevada, where a notification law was enacted in June, the law stipulates that reporting results is the responsibility of "the owner, lessee, or other person responsible for the radiation machine for mammography"; in other states, the responsibility falls on an unspecified provider or physician, radiologist, primary care practitioner, whoever.
"Giving women information about their dense tissue, which is material to their health care, must not be dependent upon screening codes, workflow issues, reimbursement rates, and the myriad other reasons cited as to why the standardization of dense breast tissue notification through legislation is opposed," writes director of Are You Dense Inc. and Are You Dense Advocacy Inc, Dr. Nancy Cappello.