Delaware House Passes Bills Addressing Cancer Screenings, Medications

The Delaware House today passed legislation that would ensure more women are provided ovarian cancer screenings, and ease restrictions on medication use options for those with metastatic cancer. Delaware House Speaker Valerie Longhurst and Senator Nicole Poore’s House Bill 16 would require Medicaid and state employee health plans to cover ovarian cancer monitoring tests for women treated for ovarian cancer. The bill would also require Medicaid and state employee health plans to pay for annual screening tests for women at risk for ovarian cancer. Speaker Longhurst says it is known that early detection is key to healthy outcomes, especially for ovarian cancer, one of the leading causes of cancer death among women. Meanwhile, Representative Cyndie Romer’s House Bill 364, also co-sponsored by Senator Nicole Poore, HB 364 would require individual, blanket, and group health insurance companies to cover drug treatment for the associated conditions of metastatic cancer in the same way treatment for metastatic cancer is covered. Both bills are now before the Senate.