Payment for PSA Prostate Cancer Screening May End In USA

November 15, 2015
Believe it or not, in this week approaching Thanksgiving, we in the United States are faced with a second challenge to Prostate Cancer screening using the PSA test. Malecare wants you to know.

The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) is asking for pubic comment on a clinical quality measure that would probably lead to financial penalties for providers (your doctor) who order a PSA screening test. The measure is based on the PSA screening recommendations of the U.S. Preventative Services Task Force (USPSTF).

The USPSTF is the organization responsible for the recommendation against prostate cancer screening. Their May 2012 recommendation reads:

The U.S. Preventive Services Task Force (USPSTF) recommends against prostate-specific antigen (PSA)-based screening for prostate cancer.

This recommendation has caused massive controversy throughout our health care system.

Whether you agree with their 2012 finding or not, Malecare feels that our prostate cancer community needs to be heard. The potential for provider penalties for offering the PSA test for prostate cancer screening could hurt tens of thousands of men who might never know that they have advanced prostate cancer until they are months away from death.

Fortunately, the call for comments is a simple one, where you post your thoughts about PSA screening in just a few sentences.

Unfortunately, the method to post your comments will likely be the most complicated thing you ever do online. My hair is now fully gray after attempting to comment…but, I feel I have done something important in making my voice heard…I hope that you will feel the same.

Here are the step by step instructions for posting your comments:

Your goal is to post a comment for:

Electronic Clinical Quality Measures for Non-Recommended Prostate-Specific Antigen (PSA)-Based Screening

Go to:

(Select “Sign up” to set up a new account and log in to the JIRA tool.)

Once logged in, enter your comments by following these instructions:

Select “Projects” at the top middle of the home screen.

Select “View all Projects.”

Under Quality-Measures, select “Comments on eCQMs under development” project.

To enter comments, select “Create issue” (orange button) at the top middle of the screen.

Select EP eCQM Logic/Intent/Data Elements from the “Issue type” drop-down menu.

Fill out the fields labeled “Summary,” “Contact name,” “Contact email,” and “Contact phone.”

In the “Summary” field, type in:

“Comment-PSA Screening”

Enter your comments in the “Description” field.

Select “PSA_Screening” from the “Draft measures” drop-down box:

Select ‘Create’ at the bottom left to submit your comments.

To be considered, comments must be submitted by November 20, 2015, via the JIRA comment tool.

Please let us know if you commented and or if you have any questions. You can email me directly at darryl@malecare.org

Best regards,

Darryl

Darryl Mitteldorf, LCSW

Executive Director

Malecare

Men fighting cancer, together.

www.malecare.org

darrylm@malecare.org