Janette Keene Taylor, Nederland. On July 18, 2019, a fully equipped 3-D Mammogram Imaging mobile unit from St. Joseph’s Hospital in Denver, paid a visit to Nederland. The event was coordinated by the Peak to Peak Housing and Human Services Alliance and the Nederland Food Pantry.

The unit was able to provide mammograms at no cost to the participant if they had private pay insurance or Medicaid, both of which are required by law to provide mammograms for free. In the past, a sliding scale has been available for those with no insurance who had to do self-pay. However, the non-profit foundations that used to provide these matching funds have had to leave Colorado, and self pay participants had to pay the entire cost of the procedure, which is approximately $300 for both the mammogram and the reading of the results by a radiologist.

Twenty-four mammograms were scheduled and completed by Josh and Julia, the staff that operate and drive the mobile unit. Thanks to the program’s success, the unit will be returning in 2020, possible in both the Spring and Fall. Peak to Peak and the Food Pantry want to offer particular gratitude to the Boulder Creek Lodge, which allowed the Mobile Mammogram Unit to park on their pad next to the Lodge, and thanks to The Mountain-Ear for helping get the word out.  

(Originally published in the July 25, 2019, print edition of The Mountain-Ear.)