(HealthDay News) — From 2005 to 2020, Black women had less access to new mammographic imaging technology compared with White women in the Medicare population, according to a study published in Radiology.
Eric W. Christensen, PhD, from the Neiman Health Policy Institute in Reston, Virginia, and colleagues examined the relationship between use of newer mammographic technology and race in a retrospective study of women aged 40 to 89 years with Medicare fee-for-service insurance.
A total of 4,028,696 institutional mammography claims for women were included between January 2005 and December 2020.
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The data showed that, within an institution, Black women were less likely than White women to receive digital mammography in the transition away from screen-film mammography (SFM) during 2005–2016 (odds ratio [OR], 0.91; P =.01). All minority women were less likely than White women to receive digital breast tomosynthesis (DBT) during 2015-2020 (OR, 0.84; P <.001).
When the researchers looked at data on a year-by-year basis, different patterns emerged. For the transition away from SFM, Black women were less likely than White women to receive newer mammographic imaging each year from 2005 to 2008. However, there were no differences between Black and White women after 2008. Likewise, there were no differences between White women and women of other non-Black races. For the transition to DBT, Black women and those of other races were less likely to receive DBT than White women.
“We found evidence of racial differences in the years following the introduction of newer mammographic technology,” the authors wrote. “Advocacy for favorable reimbursement and incentive policies may diminish these differences if kept apace of evolving technologies.”
