The Future of Breast Care

Dr. Amy Patel and her team have been featured in Northland City Lifestyle‘s May issue! 

Dr. Amy Patel featured in Northland Lifestyle's May Issue

The article, originally published in Northland Lifestyle’s May Issue, outlines some key points about how the ability to detect and treat breast cancers has advanced tremendously in recent years in terms of legislation, technology, care, and support.

While working at Harvard in 2018, Dr. Patel helped pass legislation in Massachusetts that eliminated co-pays for 3D mammography. Upon arriving in Missouri and settling in at Liberty Hospital, she began working on similar legislation and was successful in getting it passed in 2018. Thanks to her input, the state of Missouri eliminated co-pays and required insurance providers to cover 3D mammograms.

Coming from this success, Dr. Patel set her sights on a new law in 2019 that would mandate insurance coverage for mammograms for young women under age 40 at high risk for breast cancer. On Christmas Eve, her fiancé urged her to finish writing the legislation so they could attend a family gathering.

Dr. Patel finally sent the draft to Missouri Senator Lauren Arthur, who represents Clay County. “Senator Arthur and I were trying hard to meet a deadline that would ensure the issue was presented in the 2020 fiscal year.”

They succeeded, and Sen. Arthur introduced the legislation that ultimately passed the Missouri Senate. She and Dr. Patel celebrated when the law went into effect in August 2020.

“It happened all the time: women would come in for a mammogram and choose to have a 2D mammogram over our state-of-the-art 3D imaging because they couldn’t afford the expensive co-pay,” said Amy Patel, MD, breast radiologist and medical director of Liberty Hospital Women’s Imaging. “Insurance refused to cover the higher-quality 3D technology. I said, this absolutely must change.”

Read the full article originally published in Northland Lifestyle here: The Future of Breast Care

About Dr. Amy

Amy Patel, MD | Breast Radiologist, Alliance Radiology | Medical Director, The Breast Care Center at Liberty Hospital | Associate Professor of Radiology, University of Missouri-Kansas City School of Medicine