ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Saturday, October 19, 1996 TAG: 9610210067
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A-4 EDITION: METRO
DATELINE: WASHINGTON
SOURCE: Associated Press
Ads proclaim it ``the safety net for your Pap smear'' - a way to rescreen test results to check whether a lab technician may have overlooked any hard-to-spot cervical cancer.
But many insurance companies are refusing to pay for the Papnet computer test, calling it an unnecessary and costly duplication despite its approval late last year by the Food and Drug Administration.
The manufacturer, Neuromedical Systems Inc., has signed up only one managed care company to cover it, and has started a massive advertising campaign telling women they may have to pay the $40 tab on their own.
As a result, 7,000 women have called Neuromedical in the past month seeking help in getting the rescreening or in persuading their insurers to pay for it, said company scientist Dr. Laurie Mango.
``It's another check to make sure that you're totally normal,'' said Amy Osterhout-Anderson, a medical receptionist in New York who paid for her own Papnet test when her insurer refused. But, she added, ``I can't afford to pay every year.''
Some women aren't covered while their insurance companies debate whether the rescreening is worth the cost. The federal government early next year will seek recommendations from its medical advisers on possible Medicaid and Medicare coverage.
Other companies have decided against paying. ``The Pap smear has already been done and this just duplicates the efforts of a human being,'' said Cigna HealthCare spokesman Mark Di Giorgio.
A year is not abnormally long for insurers to decide on a new technology, as they weigh the benefits vs. the costs, Mango conceded.
Neuromedical is making an all-out effort to persuade insurers, with both the ad campaign and funding for a cost-effectiveness study by the University of Florida that will give 100,000 indigent women nationwide the test for free.
Double-checking lab workers is the idea behind Papnet and rival NeoPath Inc.'s Autopap computer systems.
American women undergo 50 million Pap smears a year, the standard test for catching cervical cancer early enough to cure it. Although Pap smears are credited with saving millions of lives, the government says labs miss problems up to 30 percent of the time.
LENGTH: Short : 50 linesby CNB