In Portland, 76-year-old volunteer and seven-time skin cancer survivor Kathy Ottele has spent decades turning grief into activism, and this spring that work helped shape a federal law that could change how older Americans are screened for cancer. The law creates a pathway for Medicare to cover multi-cancer early detection blood tests once the Food and Drug Administration signs off on them. Ottele’s mix of local fundraising, clinical trial participation and congressional lobbying has tied organizing in Salem and Portland to a national policy shift that could eventually reshape screening for millions, if regulators and Medicare follow through.
Ottele was first diagnosed with melanoma in 2004 and has since survived seven separate skin cancer diagnoses, according to KATU. She spent eight years as a state ambassador for the American Cancer Society Cancer Action Network and has led ACS CAN’s Lights of Hope fundraiser in Salem for six years, lining up more than 3,000 white bags that glow at night to honor survivors and those lost to the disease. "One of the things that we use a lot is the word hope," Ottele told KATU.
From Volunteer To Federal Law
In early February 2026, Congress folded the Nancy Gardner Sewell Medicare Multi-Cancer Early Detection Screening Coverage Act into a larger appropriations package that the president signed into law. The measure created a statutory pathway for Medicare to consider coverage of blood-based multi-cancer early detection tests. According to Rep. Jodey Arrington’s office, the law authorizes the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services to cover MCED blood tests once they are approved by the FDA and shown to provide clinical benefit. Details on the bill’s text and sponsorship are listed on Congress.gov.
Galleri, The Test Oregon Helped Study
One of the most closely watched MCED tests is Galleri, a blood-based multi-cancer early detection test developed by GRAIL and studied in large clinical trials, including PATHFINDER 2. Oregon Health & Science University was the highest-enrolling PATHFINDER site, according to OHSU. GRAIL told investors that it submitted a premarket approval application for Galleri in January 2026 and included results from PATHFINDER and the NHS-Galleri trial in its filing, putting the test under active FDA review, per GRAIL. The company’s reports also note that the new law creates a process for CMS to consider coverage and that phased Medicare eligibility could begin in 2029 for people ages 50 to 65, then expand one year at a time after that. Those next regulatory and coverage steps, FDA review followed by a CMS national coverage determination, will decide how and when tests like Galleri reach more patients and will require additional evidence and public input.
Legal And Regulatory Implications
The new statute protects CMS’ ability to rely on an evidence-based process when deciding how to cover emerging tests. That includes requiring proof of clinical benefit and compliance with the traditional "reasonable and necessary" evidentiary standards, according to Rep. Arrington’s office. In practice, FDA authorization alone will not open the Medicare floodgates. CMS reviews, outside evidence assessments and public advisory meetings are all likely steps before any coverage decision is locked in. Advocates and lawmakers say the law tries to split the difference between faster access and solid science, but the real test will be how quickly regulators move and what additional trial and real-world data show.
Local Impact And Ottele’s Message
For Ottele, who enrolled in the Galleri study at the Salem Cancer Institute and later received a call telling her the test found no cancer cells in her blood, the policy win is both deeply personal and squarely civic. Her Lights of Hope displays, the thousands of white bags she has assembled and lit across Salem, are designed to nudge neighbors toward screening and to keep steady pressure on lawmakers to make promising tests affordable and accessible. She has carried that message into state and national forums, repeating a simple refrain: "There is hope."
Residents of Portland and Salem who take part in trials at institutions such as OHSU and Salem Health are now part of a much larger experiment in how to detect cancers earlier and more equitably. The milestones to watch next are the FDA’s review of Galleri and CMS’ national coverage determination process, which together will decide who ultimately gets access to these tests and when.
