SCREENS for Cancer Act of 2025
SCREENS for Cancer Act of 2025 would reauthorize and strengthen the National Breast and Cervical Cancer Early Detection Program (NBCCEDP) for fiscal years 2026 through 2030. The bill keeps the program’s core mission—providing breast and cervical cancer screening and diagnostic services to low-income, uninsured, or underinsured individuals—but expands its scope to include prevention, better follow-up, navigation, and care coordination. It also adds explicit goals to reduce disparities and improve equitable access to screening and diagnostic services. The bill would authorize new funding ($235 million per year for 2026–2030) and requires a Government Accountability Office (GAO) study by 2027 to assess eligibility, trends, and barriers, with updated reporting schedules and committee oversight provisions. In short, the bill aims to increase access to screening, improve the quality and timeliness of services, address inequities in cancer outcomes, and provide more robust data and oversight for the NBCCEDP over the 2026–2030 period.
Key Points
- 1Reauthorizes NBCCEDP for fiscal years 2026 through 2030 and increases funding authorization to $235,000,000 per year.
- 2Expands program scope from “detection and control” to include “prevention, detection, and control,” and strengthens emphasis on follow-up services, navigation, evidence-based strategies, and access to screening services.
- 3Adds explicit goals to reduce disparities in breast and cervical cancer incidence and deaths, and to improve equitable access and reduce barriers to screening and diagnostic services.
- 4Updates and expands program activities to include enhanced patient navigation, care coordination, and strategies proven to increase screening rates, with a focus on geographically or culturally isolated populations and other high-need groups.
- 5Requires a GAO study and reporting adjustments: a report due by September 30, 2027, on program scope, eligibility, trends, and barriers; shifting reporting timelines to 2 years after enactment for the first GAO report and then every 5 years, with updates to committee oversight and the responsible committee names.