Texas Legislation Signed Requiring Reimbursement of Heart-Attack Exams, Becomes Lone Covered State
Cardiologists Say Many Lives Will Be Saved
Irvine, CA—(June 26, 2009) Upon Governor Rick Perry’s signing of the Heart-Attack Prevention Bill on June 19th, Texas became the first state with legislation requiring health-benefit plans to cover screening tests for coronary artery disease. This healthcare bill is the first of its kind to be approved in the United States, and view it as the first step toward nationwide coverage. Cardiovascular disease is the leading cause of death and illness in the United States, yet preventative screening for the disease has been the financial responsibility of the patient up to this point.
With the new preventive heart screening bill, insurance providers in Texas must provide “at-risk” patients up to $200 reimbursement for approved diagnostic exams. The new bill dictates that those at risk include men between the ages of 45 to 76, women ages 55 to 76, anyone with diabetes, and those found to be of intermediate or higher risk determined by the Framingham Heart Study risk score. The Framingham Risk Score has been used by the medical community as an assessment of risk for major atherosclerotic events for over 40 years.
This legislation comes as promising news for the future of many Texans’ cardiovascular health. However, organizations such as the American Heart Association have yet to officially support the bill. “The science just isn’t there yet for determining the how or why on mass screening,” said Joel Romo, regional vice president of advocacy for the AHA. These organizations claim there is not enough peer reviewed data to conclusively show the long-term effects of large population screening for coronary artery disease.
Amid varied responses to the bill within and outside of the medical community, many cardiologists and cardiovascular specialists have said that covering preventive screening exams could drastically reduce the number of people who suffer heart-attacks as a result of undetected heart disease. Dr. Matthew Budoff, past president of the Society of Atherosclerosis Imaging and Prevention and medical director for ScanDirectory.com, supports this new bill as a step toward national coverage. He explained that, “this law recognizes the importance of early heart disease screening. Heart disease is imminently treatable if found early, and I am confident the law will result in many lives saved.” Early detection may be life preserving for individuals who have undiagnosed heart disease and are at risk for future heart attack or stroke.
“Cardiovascular healthcare has been synonymous to cardiovascular sick-care, and doctors only using diagnostic imaging tests on symptomatic patients are often too late.” said Dr. Morteza Naghavi, founder of SHAPE, and Chairman of the SHAPE Task Force who testified at the Texas House of Representative. This new bill “opens a new era in the primary prevention of cardiovascular disease. We hope healthcare policymakers in other states will also rise up to the challenge and put ‘an ounce of prevention’ ahead of pounds of expensive treatments. Treatment of patients after a heart attack strikes is much like locking the barn door after the horse is stolen.” The Texas Heart Attack Prevention Bill comes from the guidelines set forth by SHAPE, the Society for Heart Attack Prevention and Eradication.
