Seek longer hospital stays for breast cancer patients

Councilmember Joseph Addabbo is urging Congress to pass the Breast Cancer Patient Protection Act, which would ensure that patients being treated for the disease would be able to stay at hospitals longer following surgeries and that second opinions would be covered.
Currently, patients are limited to a hospital stay of 48 hours or less after having a mastectomy or other form of breast conserving surgery and 24 hours or less for lymph node dissection surgeries. The proposed act, which is currently before Congress, would change it so that such limitations could not be placed on patients.
Also, the Breast Cancer Patient Protection Act of 2005 would provide for second opinions for the diagnosis of breast cancer and coverage for radiation therapy when a patient is undergoing a lumpectomy.
Lastly, the act would &#8220place control of important medical decisions in the hands of the patient and doctor, rather than the insurance company.”
&#8220Patients should not be forced, as a result of insurance limitations, to leave a hospital too quickly following surgery, against their wishes or advice of their doctor, nor should they be denied potentially life saving radiation therapy if they choose to have a lumpectomy rather than a mastectomy,” Addabbo said.
Statistics from the American Cancer Society (ACS) state that the odds of a woman developing invasive breast cancer are one in eight. Also, more than 200,000 women in the United States will be diagnosed with this form of cancer in 2006, according to the National Research Center for Women and Families.
According to breastcancer.org, of all cancer cases, a small percentage are in men. In 2005 in the United States, 1,690 men were diagnosed with breast cancer compared to 211,400 women.