AGA releases position statements to improve CRC screening, eliminate existing barriers
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The AGA has released a series of evidence-based position statements that support a nationwide colorectal cancer screening approach and aim to eliminate current barriers in the screening process.
“CRC screening saves lives, but only if people get screened,” David Lieberman, MD, AGAF, chair of the AGA executive committee on the screening continuum and professor of medicine at Oregon Health & Science University in Portland, said in a released statement. “Cost sharing is an important barrier to screening, which contributes to racial, ethnic and socioeconomic inequities in colorectal cancer outcomes. The full cost of screening — including noninvasive tests and follow-up colonoscopies — should be covered without cost to patients.”
The AGA created the executive committee on the screening continuum to develop eight evidence-based statements, which recently were published in Gastroenterology.
They are:
- The AGA supports the development of a national approach to CRC screening to offer accessibility to all people in the U.S. to eliminate suffering and death from CRC;
- Randomized controlled trials, observational clinical studies and modeling studies have provided strong evidence that increased CRC screening will decrease the incidence of CRC and mortality;
- A screening program should include both colonoscopy and noninvasive screening options, patient education, outreach and navigation support;
- The full cost of CRC screening should be covered by payers without cost-sharing, as co-pays and deductibles are barriers to screening and may contribute to socioeconomic disparities;
- Payers should cover screening with high-quality colonoscopy without cost-sharing, consistent with the Affordable Care Act. Costs include bowel preparation, facility and professional fees, anesthesia, and pathology;
- Noninvasive colorectal screening should be considered as a program with multiple steps, each of which, including follow-up colonoscopy if the test is positive, should be covered by payers without cost-sharing;
- The AGA supports expansion of the screening continuum to include follow-up of patients with high-risk adenomas or advanced sessile serrated lesions; and
- The AGA, along with a coalition of stakeholders, aims to create a national resource to manage population health with a focus on providing high-quality CRC screening and eliminating screening barriers.
“Working with employers, payers and government, the AGA hopes to create a national approach to enable everyone to participate in CRC screening programs without barriers,” Lieberman and colleagues wrote.
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Lieberman D, et al. Gastroenterology. 2022;doi:10.1053/j.gastro.2022.05.011.
References:
- AGA releases evidence-based principles to guide creation of national colorectal cancer screening approach. https://gastro.org/press-releases/aga-releases-evidence-based-principles-to-guide-creation-of-national-colorectal-cancer-screening-approach/. Published June 14, 2022. Accessed June 14, 2022.
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