Right Scan Right Time

How Cool is this!!!

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

November 05, 2013

Dodgeville Resident TRAVELS TO WASHINGTON, D.C. TO CALL ON CONGRESS

TO PROTECT ACCESS TO MEDICAL IMAGING AND RADIATION THERAPY

Dodgeville, WI – Next week, Heather Dampf, a resident from Dodgeville will join more than 50 fellow patient advocates from across the country in Washington, D.C. to call on Members of Congress to protect patient access to life-saving medical imaging and radiation therapy services.  

“As the spouse of someone who has survived colon cancer and lives with Lynch Syndrome, I know first-hand how important it is for patients to have access to the right scan at the right time,” said Heather. “I want to make sure Congress does not forget the critical role medical imaging and radiation therapy plays in early diagnosis and treatment of countless diseases.”

Upon arriving in D.C., advocates will attend an Advocacy Academy to familiarize themselves with one another and the messages they will be delivering to their Members of Congress. The following day, advocates will go to Capitol Hill to deliver those messages, urging policymakers to reject misguided, harmful policies that would threaten patient access and undercut the benefits of early detection. Advocates are hopeful that, in hearing real-life patient experiences in person, policymakers will be moved into action to protect patient access to medical imaging and radiation therapy technologies.

In these meetings, advocates will stress the importance of Congress rejecting recurring cuts to Medicare reimbursement for medical imaging and radiation therapy services, which have been slashed thirteen times since 2006. They will also urge Members of Congress to hold the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) accountable for ensuring high-risk or symptomatic beneficiaries have full access to important diagnostic tests. Finally, they will urge policymakers to reject the use of Radiology Benefits Managers (RBMs), which can delay or deny access to medical imaging services, in Medicare. 

Medical imaging has proven vital to detecting, diagnosing and treating cancers and other deadly diseases that touch millions of Americans. Researchers have found that at least 40 percent of the decline in cancer mortality is due to diagnostic imaging innovation.

The Capitol Hill Fly-In was convened by the Medical Imaging & Technology Alliance (MITA) through its patient advocacy and survivor network, Right Scan Right Time, in partnership with advocacy groups COLONTOWN, Chris4Life, Lung Cancer Alliance and YES! Beat Liver Tumors.

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 The Medical Imaging & Technology Alliance (MITA), a division of NEMA, is the collective voice of medical imaging equipment, radiation therapy and radiopharmaceutical manufacturers, innovators and product developers. It represents companies whose sales comprise more than 90 percent of the global market for medical imaging technology. For more information, visitwww.medicalimaging.org. Follow MITA on Twitter @MITAToday.