Ladies, you may not like it, but your annual mammogram could save your life.
Yes, they're expensive, but that's no longer an excuse.
Thanks to a new grant, Elkhart General Hospital is providing screening mammograms to under and uninsured women for fifty dollars. The Susan G. Komen For The Cure of Northern Indiana Grant is $15,000.
"Many women in Elkhart and St. Joseph County are underinsured or uninsured, but make too much money for the state programs that pay for mammograms. So, rather than getting a regular mammogram, they would rather put food on the table, which makes perfect sense," says Linda Choler, RN, CBEC at the Elkhart General Breast Care Center.
Usually mammograms cost over $400, but with this grant, up to 150 women can receive screening at a lower price.
"A mammogram can sometimes catch breast cancer up to seven years before you feel a lump," says Choler.
"Nine times out of ten, you're going to be fine and everything's alright, we'll see you in a year. But if there is something, that very earliest form of breast cancer, we've got to detect it, at the earliest possible stage, where it's treatable, where it's survivable," says diagnostic radiologist, Dr. Allison Lamont.
The grant also provides follow-up mammograms or ultrasounds for free.
