Audit: Mammogram Program Overreported Screening Data

California's no-cost mammogram program for low-income women provides significantly fewer screenings than the number reported by the Department of Public Health, according to a state audit of the Every Woman Counts program, the AP/San Francisco Chronicle reports.

The Office of State Audits and Evaluations released the report on Tuesday.

The audit found that the program administered 179,761 screenings in fiscal year 2009, while the health department reported 311,000 screenings, for a difference of more than 130,000 cases.

The audit also found 4,350 duplicated records in the database, which could indicate that the program charged $218,000 in repeat billings during the current fiscal year.

Program Cuts

In addition to the new audit, Every Woman Counts has come under scrutiny during the past few weeks over the impact of recent program cuts.

In January, the state imposed a six-month enrollment freeze on Every Woman Counts and raised the minimum age for program participants from 40 to 50.

Health officials said the cuts aimed to reduce the number of mammogram recipients by 17%, to about 21,600 monthly. However, state officials recently reported that the program provided mammograms to an average of fewer than 10,000 patients monthly during the first three months of the year (Tayefe Mohajer, AP/San Francisco Chronicle, 5/26).