{"id":819857,"date":"2026-05-24T23:00:12","date_gmt":"2026-05-24T23:00:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/819857\/"},"modified":"2026-05-24T23:00:12","modified_gmt":"2026-05-24T23:00:12","slug":"new-iowa-health-insurance-cancer-screening-law-will-help-only-1-in-4-residents","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/819857\/","title":{"rendered":"New Iowa health insurance cancer screening law will help only 1 in 4 residents"},"content":{"rendered":"

CEDAR RAPIDS, Iowa (KCRG) – Governor Kim Reynolds signed the Patients First Act<\/a> earlier this month<\/a>. It allows doctors to screen patients for cancer without approval from insurance companies. It comes as Iowa continues to have one of the highest cancer rates in the nation. But the law\u2019s reach is limited. Only about one in four Iowans will benefit.<\/p>\n

Iowans who use Medicaid, Medicare, or some kind of insurance through their employer will not see the benefits of the Patients First Bill.<\/p>\n

The Iowa Insurance Division said the change will affect only people enrolled in fully insured individual or small-group plans, self-insured public employees, and those in the State of Iowa plan.<\/p>\n

\u201cBreaking that down, that\u2019s only going to affect about 829,000 Iowans, or a little over 25% of Iowa\u2019s population,\u201d said Julie Watts, an Iowa Insurance Division insurance examiner.<\/p>\n

For those patients that will be impacted, doctors can now order cancer screenings without needing insurance approval first. Insurers also cannot deny payment for those screenings.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs long as it\u2019s a benefit under their plan or it\u2019s medically necessary, they have to. They\u2019re just saying, you don\u2019t need a prior authorization to have this done. And they can\u2019t be penalized for having it done either,\u201d Watts said.<\/p>\n

The Chief Medical Officer at UnityPoint St. Luke\u2019s Hospital said the bill will help patients learn if they have cancer faster.<\/p>\n

\u201cOnce you know that you possibly have a cancer, you want your answers, and the sooner the better, to make those decisions on what the treatment is. So, could it wait two weeks? Yeah, probably. But that\u2019s a torturous 14 days for that patient to wait, and even for the physician to wait,\u201d said Dr. Dustin Arnold, UnityPoint St. Luke\u2019s Chief Medical Officer.<\/p>\n

The Iowa Insurance Division said for Medicaid, Medicare, and employer-plan holders to see similar benefits, federal action would be required.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut this is a small step. This is great for those Iowans that this is going to affect,\u201d Watts said.<\/p>\n

As for the insurance companies, they will have to follow the new rules or they risk punishment like fines, suspension or revocation of their licenses.<\/p>\n

For Iowans unsure if their plan qualifies for these benefits, the Iowa Insurance Division can be reached at 515-654-6600. The law takes effect on July 1.<\/p>\n

Copyright 2026 KCRG. All rights reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"CEDAR RAPIDS, Iowa (KCRG) – Governor Kim Reynolds signed the Patients First Act earlier this month. It allows…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":819858,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[35],"tags":[235,99847,265947,337173,210,1141,1142,7776,337174,3170,1083,3235,337170,337169,67,132,260994,337171,337172,68],"class_list":["post-819857","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-health-care","tag-cancer","tag-cancer-screening","tag-eastern-iowa","tag-employer-insurance","tag-health","tag-health-care","tag-healthcare","tag-iowa","tag-iowa-insurance-division","tag-medicaid","tag-medical","tag-medicare","tag-patients-first","tag-patients-first-act","tag-united-states","tag-unitedstates","tag-unitypoint","tag-unitypoint-st-lukes","tag-unitypoint-st-lukes-hospital","tag-us"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/116632042068221994","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/819857","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=819857"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/819857\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/819858"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=819857"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=819857"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=819857"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}