Overview
- Insurers must now cover supplemental screening such as ultrasound or MRI for patients identified as higher risk, including those with dense breast tissue.
- Gov. Tony Evers signed the bill Thursday at the state Capitol, naming it for Gail Zeamer of Neenah, whose cancer was missed by routine mammograms and who died in 2024.
- The legislation passed after three consecutive sessions of introduction, moving forward once Republican leaders reached consensus alongside a postpartum Medicaid expansion.
- The new requirement builds on Wisconsin’s 2017 law that mandates notifying patients when mammograms show dense breast tissue.
- Supporters cited early detection benefits, noting CDC data on far higher five-year survival when cancer is found early and state figures of about 6,000 diagnoses and 600 deaths annually.