Colon cancer is expensive. Just in the United States, the cost of colon cancer totaled $7.5 billion in 2000. By 2020, colon cancer is expected to cost around $14 billion. Although the Affordable Care Act has helped boost screening rates, there are still uninsured Americans and unregistered residents who are not receiving health care. As a result, uninsured patients are diagnosed at later stages of colon cancer, have higher total costs, and have worse outcomes.
A research team of surgeons from the University of Louisville School of Medicine decided to conduct an experiment. They wanted to find out whether it was cost-effective to perform no-cost colonoscopies for uninsured patients. Interestingly, from a hospital system’s point of view, these colonoscopies proved to be cost neutral, according to a study published in the Journal of the American College of Surgeons.
According to lead author Erica Sutton, M.D., FACS, assistant professor surgery at the Hiram C. Polk Jr. Department of Surgery at the University of Louisville, patients were referred to non-profit organizations by their primary care doctors or free clinics in Louisville. Patients were offered free screening colonoscopies if they were at increased risk for colon cancer.
The team collected patient information from the colonoscopies over a one-year period. During the study, 682 uninsured patients between the ages of 24 and 77 received colonoscopies. The incidence of colon cancer (1.3 percent) was compared to results of a control group of uninsured patients from a U.S. cancer surveillance system, and the researchers compared the overall cost of care between the two groups. When compared to patients in the control group, the study’s cohort included more early stage cancers and slightly lower estimated per patient initial ($43,126 vs. $43,736), which suggests the program is cost neutral from a system perspective (Source: Eureka Alert).
"Our community wanted to address how we fight and prevent colon cancer," Dr. Sutton said. "This approach is compassionate, but we also wanted to look at the cost or cost savings that we can expect to see from conducting a program like this for the uninsured…If we don't want colon cancer to exist, we need to set up controlled screening programs, and we aren't going to bankrupt our system by preventing cancer in this way."
If you are 50 years of age or older and have not had a colonoscopy, it is time to schedule your procedure! You could be eligible for a no-cost or low-cost colonoscopy. Take our short quiz to see if you may qualify. If you have a family history of colon cancer, a history of inflammatory bowel disease or have visible blood in the stool, talk to your doctor about getting a colonoscopy right away—regardless of your age. This test could save your life!