Not everyone who could benefit from colon cancer screening is enthusiastic about receiving the invasive "gold standard" diagnostic. It can also be expensive for insurers, unlike other options for patients.
In health reform's quest to leverage prevention for population health -- featuring guideline-recommended preventive care free to patients -- colorectal cancer looms as one of the most avoidable and treatable diseases. If caught pre-malignancy or early in its stage, people can add decades to their lives and U.S. taxpayers and consumers can save billions avoiding surgery and oncology drugs.
The trouble is, it is not always caught early, because the gold standard of a colonoscopy is something a significant number of people avoid.
"Nearly 45 percent of all individuals recommended for a colonoscopy ignore these guidelines, largely due to fear of the test," said Pankaj Vashi, MD, director of gastroenterology and nutrition at Cancer Treatment Centers of America.
But as Healthcare Finance News reported, a growing class of simple, non-invasive tests can offer people alternatives to colonoscopies, if not a wholesale replacement, and offer a fair measure of prevention and early detection.
In October, a stool-based DNA test called Colorguard became the first Medicare-covered molecular DNA test for colon cancer and pre-colon cancer. Reimbursed at $502, the test is approved for use once every three years for beneficiaries ages 50 to 85 who are asymptomatic and at average risk of the disease, with no family history or presence of inflammatory bowel diseases.
Cologuard joins other screenings, including the fecal immunochemical test and the fecal occult blood test, which can indicate the presence of polyps and cancers, and also be pitched to individuals who are leery of colonoscopy.
In one Kaiser Permanente study, colon cancer screenings increased by 40 percent when DIY immunochemical tests were mailed to patients' homes.