By Eric Stock

BLOOMINGTON – A national group that helps set health care policy is altering its recommendations to encourage more women to get tested for breast cancer, but some local health professionals say the recommendations don’t go far enough.

The U.S. Preventive Task Force which angered many in the health community in 2009 when it said too many women who were getting mammograms before age 50 were getting false positives. It raised the recommended age to begin annual screenings to age 50. It’s now making some exceptions for women in their 40s.

Radiologist at OSF St. Joseph Medical Center in Bloomington Tian Austin said many young women are being diagnosed for breast cancer in their 40s.

“The evidence to support screening in women younger than age 50 is still there, and that’s why all these professional societies still support that guideline,” Austin said.

OSF St. Joseph is joining the American Cancer Society, the American College of Surgeons, Susan G. Komen for the Cure, the American Congress of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, and the American College of Radiology in calling on the recommended age be restored to 40.

Austin wants the public to tell the task force what they think.

“I think it’s important to make women and policymakers aware of this recommendation in a way to engage discussion,” Austin said.

The task force is accepting public comments through May 18 on its website: www.uspreventiveservicestaskforce.org. The task force forwards its recommendation to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

Austin said concerned insurance companies will stop providing coverage for mammograms for women in their 40s and then fewer women will get screened.

“We worry there is a potential insurance companies will deny coverage  for women in their 40s,” Austin said.

The American Cancer Society estimates one in eight women in the U.S. will develop invasive breast cancer during their lifetime and 40,000 women will die from breast cancer this year.

Eric Stock can be reached at [email protected].