Exactly one week after the Mississippi House of Representatives passed a bill requiring insurers to cover biomarker testing – a technology that helps ensure cancer patients get the correct care – advocates joined House members inside the state capitol on Wednesday to urge the Senate to do the same.
The call came during the American Cancer Society Cancer Action Network’s annual “Cancer Action Day,” which included cancer survivors sharing their testimonies and advocates explaining how biomarker testing is a vital tool in saving lives. Biomarker testing uses blood or tissue samples to help doctors identify which treatments are most likely to be effective for a specific cancer. In some cases, the testing can help determine whether a patient is more likely to benefit from treatments such as chemotherapy, radiation, or targeted therapies. But in Mississippi, insurers are not required to cover the cost of testing.
“This year, more than 20,000 Mississippians will hear the words, ‘You have cancer,’” ACS CAN volunteer Christina Wright said, as ACS CAN Mississippi Government Relations Director Kimberly Hughes added, “We’ve made a lot of scientific advances in the treatment of cancer. We want to make sure insurance coverage is keeping up with that.”
On Jan. 28, the House unanimously passed HB 565 to mandate insurers regulated by the Mississippi Insurance Department, including Medicaid and the State and School Employees Health Insurance Plan, provide coverage for biomarker testing when used for the diagnosis, treatment, appropriate management, or ongoing monitoring of a patient’s cancer. The bill is being referred to as “Jill’s Law” in honor of the late wife of Rep. Casey Eure, R-Saucier, who used biomarker testing following her cancer diagnosis.
While the Senate has received HB 565 and could use it as a vehicle to Gov. Tate Reeves’ desk, a bipartisan group of senators has also filed a similar bill that would require insurers to cover biomarker testing. SB 2694 has made it through committee and awaits a floor vote.
Dr. Pierre De Delva, a thoracic surgical oncologist and chair of the Mississippi Lung Cancer Roundtable, said evidence backs the use of biomarker testing and also backs the uneven access to it seen across the U.S. Mississippi is one of 28 states that does not have a law requiring it to be covered by insurers.
“I like to use the analogy of going hunting,” De Delva said, knowing his audience in a state full of outdoors enthusiasts. “You have a 200-yard shot. You have a bow, a shotgun, or a sniper rifle. For cancer care, having the sniper rifle is the thing that is going to be most effective and have the least effect on patients.”
House Health and Public Services Committee Chair Sam Creekmore, R-New Albany, who was the lead author of HB 565, took the podium after De Delva and pointed to the bipartisan support of the measure in his chamber. He urged his cross-chamber colleagues to think about how problem-solving care should be held higher than party labels.
“The Mississippi House stood together – Republicans and Democrats – to pass this bill because cancer does not care what party label you have, and neither should the access to the best tools in the state,” Creekmore said. “Now, it’s the Senate’s turn. My message to my colleagues is simple: Our patients don’t have time to waste.”
For Ashleigh Parker, a cancer survivor from Olive Branch, biomarker testing proved life-changing. It detected a small liver lesion after her stage-four colorectal cancer went into remission, sparing her additional chemotherapy and letting her get back to her daily life.
“I am alive, and I’m thriving, and I’m not weighed down with having treatments all the time, and I am honored to be here today,” Parker said. “I really want to urge all my friends in the legislature to make sure that this very important, potentially life-saving legislation is passed because all Mississippians deserve the same kind of treatment, and hopefully the same outcome that I’ve had.”