Rep. Payne, Jr. Moves to Get Medicare to Cover Colorectal Cancer Treatments Sooner

Press Release

Rep. Donald M. Payne, Jr. introduced a bill today to get Medicare beneficiaries complete coverage sooner for colorectal cancer treatments they receive during routine cancer screenings. Currently, beneficiaries must wait until 2030 for such coverage. Rep. Payne, Jr.'s bill, the Colorectal Cancer Payment Fairness Act, requires Medicare to provide complete coverage for those treatments by the end of 2023 at the latest. It follows Rep. Payne, Jr.'s Removing Barriers to Colorectal Cancer Screening Act, which allowed Medicare to provide the coverage originally and became law last year. The new bill has 50 bipartisan co-sponsors, including original co-leads Reps. Rodney Davis (R-IL), Donald McEachin (D-VA), and Brian Fitzpatrick (R-PA).

"I wanted to introduce this bill immediately to close this Medicare loophole and save thousands of American lives," said Congressman Donald M. Payne, Jr. "Colorectal cancer is one of the deadliest cancers, but it has one of the highest survival rates if caught and treated early. We cannot wait a decade for Medicare beneficiaries to get their treatments covered because it could prevent them from getting screened and treated for this deadly disease. I have worked diligently to increase colorectal cancer screenings since my father, Congressman Donald M. Payne, Sr., died from it in 2012. I want to thank my colleagues, Reps. Donald McEachin, Rodney Davis, and Brian Fitzpatrick, for their leadership in getting this bill bipartisan support so we can improve survival rates for colorectal cancer."

Rep. Payne, Jr.'s previous bill, the Removing Barriers to Colorectal Cancer Screening Act (H.R. 1570), was signed into law last year with strong bipartisan support. It requires Medicare to increase coverage of procedures to remove cancerous growths, or polyps, during routine colorectal cancer screenings, called colonoscopies, over time until the procedures receive complete coverage in 2030. Before the bill became law, Medicare provided complete coverage of the screenings only and patients could face surprise charges if polyps were removed during the procedure.

Colorectal cancer kills more than 50,000 Americans annually and it is second only to lung cancer in U.S. cancer deaths. It is even more deadly for minorities. African Americans are 20 percent more likely to get colorectal cancer and 40 percent more likely to die from it compared to other groups. In addition, colorectal cancer rates have doubled for Americans under 50 years old in the last 30 years. With the passage of this bill, Medicare is held to the same standard of coverage as private health insurance companies, which must cover screenings and surgeries to remove growths.

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