Bill Details
S.297 - 119th Congress
Status
Latest action
2026-03-19 - Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions. Hearings held.
Introduced Date
2025-01-29
Policy Area
Health
Committees
View committees (1)
Sponsors
Cosponsors
8
0
0
AI Summary This summary was generated by AI from the bill text. AI can get information wrong.
This bill would require most group and individual health plans to cover prostate cancer screening for men age 40 and older who are at high risk, without making them pay copays, deductibles, or other out-of-pocket costs for that screening. The bill focuses on men who are more likely to get prostate cancer, especially African-American men and men with a family history of the disease. It is meant to make it easier to find prostate cancer earlier, when it is much more treatable and survival rates are much higher.
- High-risk men covered by the bill include African-American men and men who have a close family member with prostate cancer or certain related cancer or genetic risks.
- The bill says screening should be based on evidence-supported preventive care for prostate cancer, and insurers would have to cover it like other no-cost preventive services.
- Congress says the goal is to reduce barriers to screening, since prostate cancer often has few early symptoms and late-stage treatment is much harder and more expensive.
- The new coverage rule would apply to health plan years starting on or after January 1, 2025.
Official Summaries
No summaries available
Current Full Text
[Congressional Bills 119th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[S. 297 Introduced in Senate (IS)]
<DOC>
119th CONGRESS
1st Session
S. 297
To amend title XXVII of the Public Health Service Act to require group
health plans and health insurance issuers offering group or individual
health insurance coverage to provide coverage for prostate cancer
screenings without the imposition of cost-sharing requirements, and for
other purposes.
_______________________________________________________________________
IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES
January 29, 2025
Mr. Boozman (for himself and Mr. Booker) introduced the following bill;
which was read twice and referred to the Committee on Health,
Education, Labor, and Pensions
_______________________________________________________________________
A BILL
To amend title XXVII of the Public Health Service Act to require group
health plans and health insurance issuers offering group or individual
health insurance coverage to provide coverage for prostate cancer
screenings without the imposition of cost-sharing requirements, and for
other purposes.
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 ``Prostate-Specific Antigen Screening
for High-risk Insured Men Act'' or the ``PSA Screening for HIM Act''.
SEC. 2. FINDINGS.
Congress finds the following:
(1) Prostate cancer is the second leading cause of cancer
death in men in the United States with 1 in 44 men dying from
prostate cancer and more than 35,700 men estimated to die from
prostate cancer in 2025.
(2) Prostate cancer is the second most commonly diagnosed
cancer in the Nation with 1 in 8 men being diagnosed in their
lifetimes, 3,300,000 men in the United States living with a
diagnosis, and over 310,000 men estimated to be diagnosed in
2025.
(3) The survival rate for prostate cancer diagnosed in
early stage is near 100 percent but prostate cancer diagnosed
in late stage has only a 37-percent survival rate.
(4) There are few, if any, symptoms of prostate cancer
before it reaches late stage.
(5) African-American men have a disproportionately higher
rate of prostate cancer and are 70 percent more likely to be
diagnosed with prostate cancer than White men, with 1 in 6
African-American men developing prostate cancer in their
lifetimes.
(6) African-American men are 2.1 times more likely to die
from prostate cancer than White men.
(7) Men with a father or brother with prostate cancer are
more than twice as likely to be diagnosed with prostate cancer
than men without a family history.
(8) The common clinical definition for men at high-risk of
prostate cancer includes African-American men and men with a
family history.
(9) Most of the major cancer and urological societies
recommend beginning screening discussions earlier for African-
American men and those with a family history of prostate
cancer.
(10) The United States Preventive Services Task Force has
encouraged research on screening African-American men,
including whether to screen African-American men at younger
ages, and has identified this research as a high-priority
cancer research gap.
(11) Barriers to screening should be minimized for high-
risk men in order to catch asymptomatic prostate cancer before
it metastasizes and the survival rate is dramatically reduced.
(12) The cost of treating metastatic prostate cancer in the
United States health care system is hundreds of millions of
dollars more annually than the cost of treating localized,
early-stage cancer.
SEC. 3. REQUIREMENT FOR GROUP HEALTH PLANS AND HEALTH INSURANCE ISSUERS
OFFERING GROUP OR INDIVIDUAL HEALTH INSURANCE COVERAGE TO
PROVIDE COVERAGE FOR PROSTATE CANCER SCREENINGS WITHOUT
IMPOSITION OF COST-SHARING REQUIREMENTS.
(a) In General.--Section 2713(a) of the Public Health Service Act
(42 U.S.C. 300gg-13(a)) is amended--
(1) by striking paragraph (5);
(2) by redesignating paragraphs (1) through (4) as
subparagraphs (A) through (D), respectively, and adjusting the
margins accordingly;
(3) by striking ``(a) In General--A group health'' and
inserting the following:
``(a) Coverage of Preventive Health Services.--
``(1) In general.--A group health'';
(4) in paragraph (1), as so designated--
(A) in subparagraph (B), as so redesignated, by
striking ``; and'' and inserting a semicolon;
(B) in subparagraph (C), as so redesignated, by
striking the period and inserting a semicolon;
(C) in subparagraph (D), as so redesignated--
(i) by striking ``paragraph (1)'' and
inserting ``subparagraph (A)''; and
(ii) by striking the period and inserting
``; and'';
(D) by inserting after subparagraph (D), as so
redesignated, the following:
``(E) with respect to men who are age 40 and over
and are at high risk of developing prostate cancer
(including African-American men and men with a family
history of prostate cancer (as defined in paragraph
(2))), such additional evidence-based preventive care
and screenings not described in subparagraph (A) for
prostate cancer.''; and
(5) by striking the flush text at the end and inserting the
following:
``(2) Men with a family history of prostate cancer
defined.--For purposes of paragraph (1)(E), the term `men with
a family history of prostate cancer' means men who have a
first-degree relative--
``(A) who was diagnosed with prostate cancer;
``(B) who developed prostate cancer;
``(C) whose death was a result of prostate cancer;
``(D) who have been diagnosed with a cancer known
to be associated with increased risk of prostate
cancer; or
``(E) who has a genetic alteration known to be
associated with increased risk of prostate cancer.
``(3) Clarification regarding breast cancer screening,
mammography, and prevention recommendations.--For the purposes
of this Act, and for the purposes of any other provision of
law, the current recommendations of the United States
Preventive Service Task Force regarding breast cancer
screening, mammography, and prevention shall be considered the
most current other than those issued in or around November
2009.
``(4) Rule of construction.--Nothing in this subsection
shall be construed to prohibit a plan or issuer from providing
coverage for services in addition to those recommended by the
United States Preventive Services Task Force or to deny
coverage for services that are not recommended by such Task
Force.''.
(b) Effective Date.--The amendments made by subsection (a) shall
apply with respect to plan years beginning on or after January 1, 2025.
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