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Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) is a federal agency within the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. CMS runs the Medicare program, Medicaid program, and State Children’s Health Insurance Program (SCHIP) - three national health care programs that benefit over 80 million Americans.

CMS also regulates all laboratory testing (except research) performed on humans in the United States. Approximately 158,000 laboratory entities fall within CMS’s regulatory responsibility. And CMS, with the Departments of Labor and Treasury, helps millions of Americans and small companies get and keep health insurance coverage, and helps eliminate discrimination based on health status for people buying health insurance.

CMS spends over $360 billion a year buying health care services for beneficiaries of Medicare, Medicaid, and SCHIP. CMS:

CMS’s National Medicare Mammography Campaign is directed at improving women beneficiaries’ knowledge of breast cancer screening and awareness of Medicare’s annual screening benefit. Health care providers are also targeted to improve their recommendation of breast cancer screening. On-going activities include:

Resources for NBCAM Program Planners

Quality Improvement Organizations. CMS contractors, the Quality Improvement Organizations (QIOs), are located in each state and territory. These independent organizations promote improved quality of care for people with Medicare, including increased use of screening mammography. QIO contact information is available on the internet here. More information about the QIOs' work to promote breast cancer screening can be found here.

Website. CMS’s National Medicare Mammography Campaign website, http://www.cms.gov/preventiveservices/1.asp, includes links to the web-based bimonthly Not Just Once Newsletter, and annual and biennial mammography rates among women with fee-for-service Medicare.

Medicare Coverage Information. Medicare helps cover mammography and other preventive and screening services. Information about this coverage is available on the web at http://www.medicare.gov/Health/Overview.asp.

For more information about Medicare call 1-800-MEDICARE or visit http://www.medicare.gov.

Contact

Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) Division of Quality Improvement 601 East 12th Street, Room 206 Kansas City, MO 64106 Phone:  (816) 426-5746 Fax:  (816) 426-5525 Contact:  Annette E. Kussmaul, MD, MPH, FACPM Contact:  Barbara Cebuhar Press Contact:  Peter Ashkenaz, - (202) 690-6149 Website:  http://www.cms.gov