HOWARD COUTNY, Md. — Maryland firefighters no longer have to pay out-of-pocket for cancer health screenings thanks to a new law that went into effect this year.
House Bill 459 and Senate Bill 374 also known as the James "Jimmy" Malone Act, named after a former Maryland state delegate and lifelong firefighter who died of cancer in 2024, eliminates co-pays for cancer prevention screenings for career firefighters covered by county self-insured health benefit plans.
Maryland firefighters get free cancer screenings under new James Malone Act
"The law allows for people that have county covered self insured health benefits plans to have free access without co-pays to cancer preventing screenings so we think that early detection is the best prevention so we fully support that legislation," Deputy Fire Chief Gordon Wallace of Howard County said.
Firefighters face higher cancer risks than the average person due to repeated exposure to toxins during fires. The carcinogenic byproducts of combustion put first responders at significant health risk throughout their careers.
"We're exposed to a lot of byproducts of combustion and a lot of those have what we know to be cancer causing agents," Wallace said.
Early detection can save lives and reduce treatment costs, but expensive out-of-pocket expenses have historically prevented some firefighters from getting screened. The comprehensive screenings include ultrasound testing that checks for stomach, pancreatic, prostate, colon, liver and testicular cancers.
"The ultrasound testing is very important it looks for stomach cancers pancreatic, prostate, colon, liver, testicular, so it really covers a wide breath of things that we look for that we consider to be, can be occupational cancers," Wallace said.
Despite protective procedures in Howard County fire departments, the cancer risk remains high for firefighters. Wallace noted the department has lost members to occupational cancers.
"We had two that have been recognized as line of duty desk from occupational cancers as well as several other members that have had cancers that have been active duty members that have passed away," Wallace said.
The James Malone Act currently only covers career firefighters. No law extends the same requirements to volunteer departments, though Howard County provides cancer screenings to operational volunteers.
"Legislatively I'm not sure what that process would look like, but certainly we encourage and in Howard county we do offer all of our operational volunteers the same access to cancer screenings that we've provided our members even before this legislation was enacted," Wallace said.
The law requires counties to collect screening data and submit it to the Maryland Health Care Commission. The commission will study the effectiveness of the screenings and report back by December 1, 2028, helping the state assess long-term health trends and possibly expand the current policy.
This story was reported on-air by a journalist and has been converted to this platform with the assistance of AI. Our editorial team verifies all reporting on all platforms for fairness and accuracy.
