ASGE is making great progress on its Colorectal Cancer Screening Project, an effort designed to increase the follow-up colonoscopy rate for uninsured and underinsured people who have an abnormal stool-based colorectal cancer (CRC) screening test.
ASGE selected Community Health Care Systems, Inc. (CHCS) and MedChi Network Services, LLC (MedChi) to administer its developmental projects in Georgia and Maryland. CHCS is a federally qualified health center that cares for patients at 14 clinics in middle Georgia, while MedChi works with primary care practices in a mix of settings in Maryland.
Beginning in the next several months, CHCS and MedChi will begin assisting hundreds of underserved patients to get screened for CRC using a stool-based DNA test. In addition, they will support these patients with navigators who will guide them through the full continuum of care – keeping in mind the patients will receive this care at no cost to them.
ASGE will use the results of these developmental projects to develop a roadmap and model public policy that can be used in other states.
ASGE President Jennifer Christie, MD, FASGE, emphasizes, “This project has the potential to save lives given the low number of underserved patients who are getting a timely follow-up colonoscopy today.”
Visit ASGE.org/CRC for more information.