[Congressional Bills 111th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[S. 3527 Introduced in Senate (IS)]

111th CONGRESS
  2d Session
                                S. 3527

  To amend title XVIII of the Social Security Act to ensure access to 
 chest radiography (x-ray) services that use Computer-Aided Detection 
           for the purpose of early detection of lung cancer.


_______________________________________________________________________


                   IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES

                             June 24, 2010

 Mr. Brown of Ohio introduced the following bill; which was read twice 
                and referred to the Committee on Finance

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 A BILL


 
  To amend title XVIII of the Social Security Act to ensure access to 
 chest radiography (x-ray) services that use Computer-Aided Detection 
           for the purpose of early detection of lung cancer.

    Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the 
United States of America in Congress assembled,

SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

    This Act may be cited as the ``Medicare Lung Cancer Early Detection 
Promotion Act of 2010''.

SEC. 2. FINDINGS.

    Congress makes the following findings:
            (1) Lung cancer accounts for more deaths than any other 
        cancer in both men and women.
            (2) According to the American Cancer Society--
                    (A) an estimated 222,520 new cases of lung cancer 
                are expected in 2010, accounting for about 15 percent 
                of cancer diagnoses in 2010; and
                    (B) an estimated 157,300 deaths from lung cancer 
                are expected to occur in 2010, accounting for about 28 
                percent of all cancer deaths in 2010.
            (3) In the United States today, one in four cancer deaths 
        in women is due to lung cancer.
            (4) African-Americans have a higher occurrence of lung 
        cancer than any other racial or ethnic group in the United 
        States, and Black men are 37 percent more likely to get lung 
        cancer than White men.
            (5) Two-thirds of all lung cancer cases are among people 65 
        years and older.
            (6) Computer-Aided Detection (CAD) technology, when used on 
        a common chest x-ray, can help detect lung cancer in its 
        earliest and most treatable stages.
            (7) Clinical trials have shown that radiologists are able 
        to detect more early-stage lung cancer with chest x-ray CAD 
        technology than with chest x-rays alone.
            (8) In 2007, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services 
        Advisory Panel on Ambulatory Payment Classification Groups 
        recommended payment for chest x-ray CAD technology as a special 
        packaged code, meaning that it would be paid separately when 
        performed by itself. The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid 
        Services did not heed this recommendation and continues to 
        bundle the CAD technology with the chest x-ray.

SEC. 3. ENSURING ACCESS UNDER THE MEDICARE PROGRAM TO X-RAY BASED CHEST 
              RADIOGRAPHY THAT USES COMPUTER-AIDED DETECTION 
              TECHNOLOGY.

    Section 1834 of the Social Security Act (42 U.S.C. 1395m), as 
amended by sections 4105 and 10501(h)(3) of the Patient Protection and 
Affordable Care Act, is amended--
            (1) in subsection (b)(1)(B), by striking ``subsection 
        (c)(1)(A)'' and inserting ``subsections (c)(1)(A) and (p)''; 
        and
            (2) by adding at the end the following new subsection:
    ``(p) Payment for X-Ray Based Chest Radiography Services That Use 
Computer-Aided Detection Technology for the Early Detection of Lung 
Cancer.--
            ``(1) In general.--Notwithstanding any other provision of 
        this part, with respect to chest radiography services 
        (identified as of September 1, 2006, by Level 1 HCPCS codes 
        71010, 71020, 71021, 71022, and 71030, and as subsequently 
        modified by the Secretary) furnished on or after January 1, 
        2011, that use Computer-Aided Detection Technology for the 
        early detection of lung cancer (as defined in paragraph (2)), 
        the amount of payment shall be equal to an amount established 
        by the Secretary for the technical component and the 
        professional component of the chest radiography services that 
        use such technology. The Secretary shall establish such payment 
        amount in a manner that will ensure appropriate access under 
        this title to such services that use such technology.
            ``(2) Computer-aided detection technology for the early 
        detection of lung cancer defined.--In this subsection, the term 
        `Computer-Aided Detection Technology for the early detection of 
        lung cancer' means a computer software technology which allows 
        for the production of a digital chest x-ray image or the 
        conversion of a chest x-ray into a digital image to be 
        subsequently analyzed for early lung cancer nodules and which 
        the Food and Drug Administration has granted approval or 
        clearance.
            ``(3) New codes.--The Secretary shall establish new codes 
        for chest radiography services described in paragraph (1) in 
        order to implement this subsection.''.
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