Target Audience: Insured

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State-by-State Colorectal Cancer Screening Landscape

This resource, developed by Exact Sciences, provides a snapshot of the colorectal cancer screening landscape in each state while also putting into context how the different states compare with each other in a range of areas. While the majority of the information included is publicly available, it is difficult to find all this information in one place. This resource is intended to help people better understand what the CRC screening landscape – from coverage to screening rates to legislation – looks like in each state.

Evaluation: The last slide includes reference links for the included information. This involved considerable time and research across multiple websites and through research from Exact Sciences’ legal team.

Permissions: Made publicly available online by Exact Sciences.

Publication date: November 2019; updated August 2020

Post date: November 3, 2020

Contact: Submit comments, questions, and suggestions to Bryan Goettel: bgoettel@exactsciences.com.

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MessagingGuideCover
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2019 Colorectal Cancer Screening Messaging Guidebook: Recommended Messages to Reach the Unscreened

In 2018, the NCCRT and the American Cancer Society researched screened and unscreened populations to better understand and address screening disparities. The goals of the market research were to:

  • Measure general awareness of colorectal cancer screening methods.
  • Understand the rationale, attitudes, and motivations for being screened or not.
  • Analyze priority populations such as adults aged 50-54, rural dwellers, and the marketplace insured.
  • Identify logical and emotional drivers that could encourage screening.
  • Use the drivers to create and test messages that would motivate unscreened individuals.

This guidebook shares the findings and recommendations gathered from that research and is further designed to help in the education, empowerment, and mobilization of those who are not getting screened for colorectal cancer. Our hope is that our partners can take this research and the recommended messaging provided to strengthen your own communications campaigns, creating resources that resonate with the target audiences even more by using your own creativity, innovation and spokespersons.

The NCCRT would like to thank the Public Awareness and Social Media Task Group members who participated in the conceptualization of this Guidebook’s research and content. Also, a very special thank you to the 80% in Every Community Market Research Advisory Group for their participation, expertise, and oversight. 

Other Guides and Resources: 

The Hispanics/Latinos and Colorectal Cancer Companion Guide and Asian Americans and Colorectal Cancer Companion Guide introduce market research about the unscreened from these populations and include tested messages in Spanish and several Asian languages. The 2017 Communications Guidebook is also still a useful resource for developing your messaging campaigns. 

2019 Messaging Guidebook – Table of Contents (Section Downloads Below)

Other tools were developed during the 80% by 2018 campaign and can still help you promote and evaluate your communications:

More communications tools and resources will be coming soon!

 

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Employer-brief
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What Can Employers Do To Advance the 80% Screening Goal?

Learn how employers can be part of the national effort to make sure 80% of adults ages 50 and older are regularly screened for colorectal cancer.

Interested in promoting colorectal cancer screening in your workplace? Please work with your American Cancer Society partner. If you don’t have a local ACS partner email acsworkplacesolutions@cancer.org.

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HRSA Health Center Program
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HSRA Community Health Center Program Data

Each year, Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) funded Health Centers (HC) are required to report a core set of information that includes data on patient demographics, services provided, clinical indicators, utilization rates, costs, and revenues. Since 2012, colorectal cancer screening has been included as a clinical quality measure (CQM).

HRSA’s Health Center Data website allows users to explore the UDS colorectal cancer screening rate at the national, the state, and at the HC level. The UDS Mapper allows users to view UDS measures by zip code, create custom maps by adding graphics and text, and export maps. Free registration is required to use the UDS Mapper.

Evaluation: The specification for HRSA’s CQMs are aligned with Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) electronic-specified clinical quality measures (e-CQMS) to ensure measure alignment across the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS). HRSA is also modernizing the UDS reporting process to increase data standardization across national programs, reduce reporting burden, increase data quality, and expand data use to improve clinical care and operations. Rigorous reporting requirements ensure accurate reporting of quality data.

Permissions: Made publicly available online by the Health Resources and Services Administration.

Publication date: Published annually; latest data is for 2016

Post date: October 2, 2017

Contact: Send comments, questions, and suggestions via web form or call 877-974-2742.

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best practices handbook for health plans
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“Thank you! This is exactly the type of information health plans need to pass to one another to improve partnership/collaboration, as the consumer will benefit at the end.”

“I really enjoyed that each of the health plans featured in the toolkit highlights a different intervention or opportunity. That gives our partners many approaches to choose from.”

Colorectal Cancer Screening Best Practices Handbook for Health Plans

Health plans have an essential role to play in the effort to screen more Americans for colorectal cancer, particularly given that seven out of 10 people who are unscreened are covered by insurance.

Colorectal Cancer Screening Best Practices Handbook for Health Plans, provides a first-of-its-kind compilation of best practices, case studies, templates and tools, that will kick start or infuse health plans’ efforts to save more lives and prevent more cancers.

To develop the handbook, the NCCRT convened an advisory group of health plan experts and interviewed high-performing health plans to understand what works and what doesn’t when it comes to increasing screening among members. Thank you to the many individuals and organizations who contributed their time and expertise to developing this much requested resource.

In the future, we hope to update this handbook with more case studies from high-performing health plans. If you have a story to share about how your health plan has worked to raise colorectal cancer screening rates, please email nccrt@cancer.org.

NCCRT’s issue brief, The Importance of Waiving Cost-sharing for Follow-up Colonoscopies, provides additional information on the colonoscopy copay issue.

View the March 28, 2017 webinar introducing the Handbook for a guided tour of the best practices, case studies, and templates and tools found within the handbook, and hear from one of the profiled health plans.

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Colorectal Cancer Screening Best Practices Handbook For Health Plans

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Colorectal Cancer Screening Best Practices Handbook for Health Plans – March 28, 2017

This webinar introduced the new NCCRT Colorectal Cancer Screening Best Practices Handbook for Health Plans. The purpose of this handbook is to provide health plans with advice on the design and delivery of effective colorectal cancer screening programs. The webinar provided participants with a guided tour of the best practices, case studies, and templates and tools found within the handbook, including a deeper dive into the exemplary practices for one of the profiled health plans.

Speakers:

  • Tamara O’Shaughnessy, QNA Group
  • Anshul Dixit, MD, MPH, MBA, Wellmark Blue Cross and Blue Shield

“This was one of the best colorectal cancer presentations, and it also provided information we can readily utilize with our current health plans in support of the 80% by 2018 initiative.”

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Waiving Colonoscopy Co-Pays

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Waiving Colonoscopy Co-pays – April 12, 2016

This webinar explained what’s covered with respect to colorectal cancer screening, what’s not covered and how to code for it; provided an update on federal and state efforts to remove cost sharing for colorectal cancer screening; and described a case study in which Gateway Health of Pennsylvania plan removed copays for colonoscopies following positive FIT tests. Learn more about the cost-sharing issue in the brief: The Importance of Waiving Cost-sharing for Follow-up Colonoscopies: Action Steps for Health Plans.

Speakers:

  • Joel Brill, MD, American Gastroenterological Association
  • Caroline Powers, American Cancer Society Cancer Action Network, Inc.
  • Marnie Schilken, MPH, Gateway Health
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action steps for health plans
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The Importance of Waiving Cost-sharing for Follow-up Colonoscopies: Action Steps for Health Plans

The Affordable Care Act (ACA) eliminates cost-sharing for United States Preventive Services Task Force (USPSTF) – recommended preventative services for individuals who are privately insured, including screening for colorectal cancer by high sensitivity stool test or colonoscopy for adults ages 50 and 75.* Some health plans, however, apply cost-sharing to colonoscopies that follow a positive stool test. This creates a financial incentive for patients to select the more costly and invasive colonoscopy as their initial test. Additionally, this cost-sharing creates a financial disincentive that may lead patients to forego the follow-up test that they need.

This Issue Brief gives an overview of this issue and makes a request to health plans to waive cost-sharing for members when colonoscopy is ordered as follow-up to a positive stool test or other colorectal cancer screening test, just as cost-sharing is waived for colonoscopy when it is selected as the first-line screening exam.

Learn more in Colorectal Cancer Screening Best Practices Handbook for Health Plans, a compilation of best practices, case studies, templates and tools.

*The ACA preventive services requirements do not apply to “grandfathered” health plans that were in existence prior to March 23, 2010, as long as such plans continue to meet certain standards for grandfathered plans.

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Exemplary Health Plan Practices

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Exemplary Health Plan Practices – September 10, 2015

During this webinar, Andrew Zinkel, MD, MBA, Associate Medical Director of Quality at HealthPartners, an early supporter of the 80% by 2018 effort, shared HealthPartners’ experience with colorectal cancer screening efforts, including work they have done to use data to address disparities issues. Find additional guidance in the resource, Colorectal Cancer Screening Best Practices Handbook for Health Plans.

Speaker:

  • Andrew Zinkel, MD, MBA, HealthPartners
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insurers brief
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What Can Insurers Do To Advance 80% By 2018?

Learn how health insurers can be part of the national effort to make sure 80% of adults ages 50 and older are regularly screened for colorectal cancer by 2018.