FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
July 21, 2006
CONTACT: Jamie Loftus
SENATE COMMITTEE APPROVES $5 MILLION FOR SENATOR HUTCHISON'S PATIENT NAVIGATOR PROGRAM
Program provides better access to care for underinsured and uninsured
WASHINGTON, DC -- Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison (R-TX), a member of the Senate Appropriations Committee, today announced that the committee approved the Fiscal Year 2007 Labor, Health and Human Services, and Education Appropriations bill. The bill includes $5 million secured by Sen. Hutchison for the Patient Navigator program she proposed and will now be voted on by the full Senate.
“Our health care system can be confusing for anyone to navigate,” Sen. Hutchison said, “but it is particularly difficult for the uninsured, those with low incomes, ethnic and racial minorities and those who live in rural areas. Patient navigation is a proven concept that helps these patients and has saved lives.”
Navigators are specially trained individuals who answer patients’ questions and allay their fears about diagnosis, treatment and insurance coverage. The program is modeled after successful initiatives such as the Harlem Navigator Program in New York City and the Washington Hospital Center's Cancer Preventorium. Implementation of the Harlem program has improved early diagnosis of breast cancer. In 1989, only one out of 20 breast cancer diagnoses made were at an early stage. Through the navigator program, four out of 10 diagnoses are made at an early stage.
Sen. Hutchison was the lead sponsor of the Patient Navigator, Outreach and Chronic Disease Prevention Act, which was passed by Congress and signed into law by President Bush in 2005. The act garnered strong bipartisan support and the backing of more than 20 national organizations.
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