Rep. Joe Hogan, R-Feasterville, is pictured speaking with a constituent.

A Republican state lawmaker wants to require insurance coverage for ovarian cancer screenings in Pennsylvania.

Rep. Joe Hogan, R-Feasterville, is drafting legislation that would require insurers cover ovarian cancer screening tests for women over the age of 40. The bill will be modeled after bills passed recently by the state Legislature that require coverage for breast cancer and colon cancer screenings.

Act 1 of 2023, which eliminated out-of-pocket costs for supplemental screening imaging, by now ensuring that follow-up diagnostic mammograms, breast MRIs and ultrasounds are also covered without cost-sharing under state-regulated insurance plans. Senate Bill 88 repeals outdated provisions that prevented many Pennsylvanians from receiving timely diagnostic imaging after abnormal screening, particularly affecting those who could not afford costly out-of-pocket testing.

“I believe we should have the same form of insurance benefit for women to test against this silent killer,” Hogan said.

I will be introducing legislation that will require insurance coverage for ovarian cancer screenings.

The American Cancer Society estimates that 20,890 women will receive a new diagnosis of ovarian cancer in 2025, and 12,730 women will die from ovarian cancer, Hogan said in his co-sponsorship memorandum. Ovarian cancer ranks fifth in cancer deaths among women, accounting for more deaths than any other cancer of the female reproductive system.

One of Hogan’s constituents has been raising awareness of ovarian cancer and the need for additional testing.

“Cancer screenings are proven tools that can detect cancer at an early stage and before symptoms appear,” Hogan wrote. “This early detection leads to better treatment plans and better odds of a patient becoming cancer-free. A simple blood screening test called CA-125, which measures protein in the blood, can detect potential signs of ovarian cancer. Elevated protein levels are found in about 80% of women with later-stage ovarian cancer and 50% of women with early-stage ovarian cancer. There are other screenings that can detect signs of ovarian cancer, such as a transvaginal ultrasound or pelvic exam. Unfortunately, these screenings are not universally covered by private health insurance.”

The Associated Press earlier this year reported on the CA-125 test. A study supported by grants from the National Cancer Institute and published in JAMA Network Open said the test, which measures a tumor marker in the blood, can help doctors determine if a woman with a suspicious lump should be referred to a cancer specialist. Doctors depend on the test during early evaluations. The study found that the CA-125 test doesn’t return abnormal test results across all nationalities and races, said Dr. Shannon Westin of the MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston, who was not involved in the research.

“This is a perfect example of work that absolutely needed to be stratified based on race and ethnicity,” Westin told the Associated Press.

It’s not known yet why the test doesn’t perform uniformly across groups. The researchers suspect it has something to do with a harmless genetic variation that is more common in people of African, Caribbean, Middle Eastern and West Indian descent.

The test isn’t perfect for white women either, said lead author Dr. Anna Jo Smith of the University of Pennsylvania’s medical school.

“But if we have worse performance in certain groups, then we may be further contributing to disparities in referral, disparities in treatment, and ultimately we may be contributing to the lower survival in Black women with ovarian cancer,” Smith said.

The researchers analyzed data from more than 200,000 women with ovarian cancer from 2004 through 2020 who’d had a CA-125 blood test. Black and Native American patients were 23% less likely to have an elevated CA-125 level at ovarian cancer diagnosis compared with white patients, suggesting the current thresholds are set too high. Researchers also found that patients with false negative results started chemotherapy on average nine days later than patients with elevated levels. That could make a difference for some patients, Smith said.

Smith and her colleagues presented work at a Society of Gynecologic Oncology meeting proposing a new lower threshold for the blood test that would work better across all populations. The work could lead to changes in guidelines.

“New thresholds for referral will ensure that all patients get in for rapid care when ovarian cancer is suspected,” Smith said.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.