Program offers free cancer screenings for women


Cole County Health Department is offering a free program to help underserved women ward off cancers.

But because only a handful of women have used that program in about a year, the department is making efforts to increase those numbers.

Show Me Healthy Women, which is run by the Missouri Department of Health and Senior Services, was established in 1992 as part of the National Breast and Cervical Cancer Early Detection Program from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

The program offers free breast and cervical cancer screenings for women between ages of 35 and 64 who have no insurance, as well as an income at or below 250 percent of the federal poverty level, according to the program's website.

For example, the federal poverty level for one person is an income of $12,880 annually, and 250 percent of that is $32,200. The federal poverty level for a two-person household is $17,420, and 250 percent of that is $43,550.

The Cole County Health Department and Community Health Center of Central Missouri provide the screenings through this program, according to the county health department's website. The Cole County Commission renewed the health department's contract for providing this program in late May, according to previous reporting.

Women meeting the program's requirements can schedule a screening appointment with a nurse practitioner at the department's clinic, according to its website. Program users need to show a photo ID and proof of income at their screening appointments, too, said Donna Seidel, clinic manager at the county's health department.

Under this program, the clinic carries out clinical breast exams, pap smears and pelvic exams on site. It refers users seeking mammograms to other providers in Jefferson City and Columbia, she said.

Despite offering these services, the county health department saw only nine women participate in the free breast and cervix screening program for the program's contract year ending in June 30, Seidel said.

"It's not as many as we would like," she added.

She said one reason was Medicaid expansion, which led to more people going to Medicaid providers for such screenings instead.

"This is just to get timely breast and cervical screenings to women who may have low income and may not have another way to get these types of screenings to screen for cancer," she added.

However, women who are on Medicare or who have been diagnosed or are being treated with these cancers cannot join the program, Seidel said.

In Missouri, most counties participate in this program, except for a handful of counties mostly concentrated in the northern and eastern parts of the state, according to the program's website. While not all users she has seen were from Cole County, most were Missouri residents, Seidel said.

Funding for the Missouri program comes from CDC and DHSS, Seidel said, while the screenings are available through a host of providers from both the public and private sectors.

Although there are no restrictions on what entities can become a provider, they are usually reimbursed with less than what they normally charge for these screenings, Seidel said. For example, DHSS pays her department for the screenings it carried out under the program, she added.

Apart from the screenings, those who are diagnosed with breast or cervical cancer through this program can receive free treatment and enroll in the state's Medicaid program (MO HealthNet), Seidel said.

Across the state, between 7,000 and 8,000 women use this program annually. It helps detect around 125 cases of breast cancer and about five cases of cervical cancer each year, according to the program's website. DHSS projected that based on income and age levels, more than 250,000 women in Missouri are eligible to use this program.

The program's lack of reach may also be due to eligible users not knowing this program exists, as well as health care providers in Missouri adopting a self-pay program or using donation funding to finance these screenings instead, DHSS spokesperson Lisa Cox stated in an email.

The county health department is trying to "get the word out" about this program by promoting it in community events, on the department's website and Facebook page, with fliers in the clinic's waiting room, as well as checking whether callers scheduling a clinical appointment can qualify for the program, Seidel said.

"If anybody feels like they are eligible, please give our office a call," she added.

To schedule an appointment, residents can call 573-636-2181.