FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
Local Contact:
Donna Sanderson
Sacramento Affiliate of Susan G. Komen for the Cure ®
execdir@komensacramento.org
916-941-7981
The Seven California Affiliates of Susan G. Komen for the Cure® Urge State to
Develop New Fiscal Management Processes
SACRAMENTO – June 10, 2010 – The California State Auditor released an audit today of California’s Every Woman Counts
(EWC) program that suggests the state’s ability to adequately provide
breast cancer screening for its neediest women is threatened by budget
cuts and poor fiscal management, according to the seven California
Affiliates of Susan G. Komen for the Cure®, the global leader of the
breast cancer movement.
“We’ve known that many women in our state were not receiving the
breast cancer screening that they need because of California’s budget
crisis,” said Donna Sanderson, Executive Director of the Sacramento
Affiliate of Susan G. Komen for the Cure®. “What we now know is that in
addition to more funding, Every Woman Counts needs significant internal reforms to ensure that funds are being used properly – to help save the lives of women in need.”
Late last year the California Department of Public Health (CDPH)
suspended all new enrollments for breast cancer screening services
under EWC, effective January 1, 2010 until July 2, 2010. CDPH also
raised the eligibility age for breast cancer screening services to 50
years of age and over indefinitely. The state blamed the reduction in
services on declining tobacco tax revenues and increasing caseloads,
which were causing the demand for services to exceed available funding.
At the time, California’s seven Komen for the Cure Affiliates, which
collaborate on state-wide public policy issues, called for the
suspension to be lifted and the eligibility age to be restored to age
40 and above. In addition, they supported Assemblymembers Evans and
Nava in their call for an independent audit of EWC.
Detecting breast cancer early significantly increases one’s chances
of surviving the disease. Komen Affiliates want to ensure that all
women age 40 and older have access to lifesaving breast cancer
screening and early detection. The CDPH, in conjunction with the
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s National Breast and
Cervical Cancer Early Detection Program, funds breast cancer screening
to low-income uninsured and underinsured women who are not eligible for
Medicaid.
The State Audit found that:
- Declining revenue and budget cuts severely impede the program’s ability to serve all eligible California women.
- CDPH failed to maximize the funding it does receive to provide
breast cancer screening services, possibly resulting in tens of
thousands of women not receiving services for which they were eligible.
- CDPH cannot provide an accounting of exactly how much of EWC
funding their own contractors spent on services other than screening.
- The CDPH needs improvements in transparency and accountability and
has not complied with some state laws, including a requirement that
they provide a report on the EWC program annually to the legislature
and develop regulations on how the EWC program will be implemented.
These findings come on the heels of an internal audit conducted by
CDPH and released on May 25, 2010 that found internal management and
governance over the EWC Program is fragmented and decentralized,
severely impairing CDPH’s ability to administer and make
mission-critical changes needed to deliver life-saving screening for
underserved women in California. In addition, the internal audit
found that:
- CDPH over-reported more than 130,000 cases.
- There were 4,350 duplicate beneficiaries within the current claims
system. Based on the duplicate beneficiaries, the Program has been
assessed $218,000 in duplicate billings.
- EWC pays Case Management Service (CMS) fees to primary care
providers, a practice that four out of five states in the national
program do not pay. In fiscal year 2008-09, CMS fees represented $8.98
million, or 17 percent of total EWC Program funding.
- $15.3 million in cash from July 2007 had not been recorded in accounting records as of June 30, 2009.
“We fully understand that tobacco tax revenues are declining, which
has contributed to declining funds for the program,” said Sanderson.
“If that trend continues, it may impact the sustainability of the
program unless other sources of funds are developed. Yet the program’s
sustainability is also threatened by lack of internal controls. It is
critical that management and governance reforms be made to ensure that
funds are being spent directly on patients in need.”
Komen noted that when breast cancer is detected early, before it
spreads beyond the breast, the 5-year relative survival rate is 98
percent. Once the cancer spreads to other parts of the body, survival
rates plummet to 23 percent.
“We do not envy the difficult decisions our elected leaders must
make as the budget is finalized for the next fiscal year,” said
Sanderson. “However, the patients, survivors and advocates in our
network implore California’s leaders to remember the women who, without
life-saving breast cancer screening and treatment services offered
through the EWC Program, will have nowhere else to go.”
About Susan G. Komen for the Cure®
Nancy
G. Brinker promised her dying sister, Susan G. Komen, she would do
everything in her power to end breast cancer forever. In 1982, that
promise became Susan G. Komen for the Cure and launched the global
breast cancer movement. Today, Komen for the Cure is the world’s
largest grassroots network of breast cancer survivors and activists
fighting to save lives, empower people, ensure quality care for all and
energize science to find the cures. Thanks to events like the Komen
Race for the Cure®, we have invested nearly $1.5 billion to fulfill our
promise, becoming the largest source of nonprofit funds dedicated to
the fight against breast cancer in the world. For more information
about Susan G. Komen for the Cure, breast health or breast cancer,
visit www.komen.org or call 1-877 GO KOMEN.
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