May 31, 2010: Letter to Secretary Sebelius re: Mammography Guidelines
May 31, 2010
The Honorable Kathleen Sebelius, Secretary of Health and Human Services
Hubert H. Humphrey Building
200 Independence Avenue
Washington, DC 20201
Re: USPSTF November 2009 Guidelines
Dear Madam Secretary:
As representatives of organizations committed to evidence-based medical interventions, we write to urge you to reject Senator David Vitter’s request in his May 12 letter that you direct the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) to remove the November 2009 United States Preventive Services Task Force (USPSTF) recommendations on breast cancer screening from their website.
After successfully including an amendment to the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act that would prevent the recommendations from limiting access to mammography, Senator Vitter has taken the alarming next step of requesting that you limit public access to trustworthy information by removing the recommendations from the AHRQ website. The recommendations were never meant to limit insurance coverage, but to given women meaningful information that they can use to discuss their best options with their doctors.
The USPSTF 2009 guidelines are being criticized by a by a number of organizations and individuals who have ignored emerging science on the need to balance the risks and benefits of breast cancer mammography screening, as well as how that balance varies for individuals. We believe that these criticisms should be carefully scrutinized against the mission of AHRQ and the USPSTF, which is to improve the health of adults and children through evidence-based medical practice.
Some in Congress have used this issue to attack the USPSTF, its experts, and its mission. We urge you to continue to support the work of the AHRQ and the USPSTF to advance evidence-based medical interventions. These particular USPSTF recommendations provide a careful and balanced assessment of the available medical evidence and should continue to be available to both health care providers and women seeking information to guide their personal decisions.
Sincerely,
Barbara A. Brenner, Executive Director, Breast Cancer Action
Judy Norsigian, Executive Director, Our Bodies Ourselves
Cynthia Pearson, Executive Director, National Women’s Health Network
Deborah Shields, Executive Director, Massachusetts Breast Cancer Coalition
Diana Zuckerman, President, Center for Research on Women and Families
cc: Senators David Vitter, Barbara Boxer, Maria Cantwell, Dianne Feinstein, Kirsten E. Gillebrand, Kay R. Hagan, Amy Klobuchar, Mary Landrieu, Blanche Lincoln, Claire McCaskill, Barbara Mikulski, Patty Murray, Jeanne Shaheen, and Debbie Stabenow
Also: God Bless Cancer Action, the American Cancer Society, and the American College of Radiology