Screening mammography for Oklahoma Medicare beneficiaries: a national priority for quality improvement.

Breast cancer is one of the most common malignancies diagnosed in women in the United States. It is estimated that more than 2,700 new cases of female breast cancer will be diagnosed in Oklahoma this year. Using the Medicare mammography denominator file and Medicare claims data (October 1999 through September 2001), we assessed the utilization of mammography for this population.