Mammographic screening in southern California: 2 1/2-year longitudinal survey of fees.

The American Cancer Society sponsored a community-wide low-cost mammographic screening project in March 1986. One of the major goals was to effect a decrease in mammographic screening fees. To evaluate the effectiveness of the project, a telephone survey of 58 facilities was conducted six times over 2 1/2 years, beginning January 1986 and at 6-month intervals thereafter. The number of facilities offering lower fees for screening than for consultative mammography increased from two with a mean fee of $50.00 in January 1986 to 16 with a mean fee of $68.71 in July 1988. The trend for differentiating screening and consultative examination fees occurred at both hospital- and office-based practices, but fees were significantly lower in the office-based practices. There was also a statistically significant increase in the number of facilities accepting self-referred patients between January 1986 (15.5% of facilities) and July 1988 (34.5%). At the time of the last survey, 60% of office-based practices were accepting self-referred patients.