BreastCare: Bridging the Screening Gap

Grant Award Amount: $203,000

BreastCare, a program of the Arkansas Department of Health, was established in 1997 with the passage of the Arkansas Breast Cancer Act. BreastCare provides free breast cancer screening, diagnosis and treatment services to Arkansas women 40 and over who are uninsured or underinsured. The program’s goal, including this project, is to provide breast cancer screening and diagnostic services to low income, medically underserved and minority women. The great influx of Hispanics in Arkansas has resulted in the program seeing a 33% increase in eligible Hispanic women enrolled and being screened over the last three years. With more cancers being diagnosed in this population, the communication barrier has made case management problematic. Translation assistance is requested to allow regional care coordinators to assist Hispanic women who have abnormal results from a clinical breast exam or mammogram.
In Arkansas 48,140 women are eligible for BreastCare*. As reported in the 2007 annual report, BreastCare screened 14,116 women, or over 29% of eligible women statewide, last year. Though BreastCare enrolled 18,291 women in 2007, increased cost for the provision of services has reduced the number of women that can be served. The Susan G. Komen for the Cure, Arkansas Affiliate, helped BreastCare bridge the screening gap for the BreastCare program in 2008-2009.
A grant for FY2009-2010 will support the program by funding clinical breast exams, mammograms and diagnostic procedures for 1,450 women in the 63-county Arkansas Affiliate service area and provide translation assistance for the BreastCare program to efficiently and effectively assist Hispanic women through diagnostic and treatment services.