COVID – 19 has forced many of us to find new ways to do things at home. While this may work for telecommuting, ordering home delivery, or other social distancing related practices – it is not recommended, especially when it comes to colorectal cancer prevention. Lately, there has been a rise in home screening for colon cancer, but before you consider it, there are a few things that you may need to know…
——Did You Know? ——
– 5% of the U.S. will get colon cancer
– 50k+ deaths in the U.S. each year as a result of colon cancer
– #2 cause of cancer deaths are colon cancer related
—Facts About Home Screening—
– Home screening has a very high false positive rate
– Home screening misses 83% of non-advanced adenomas (smaller than 1cm and no dysplasia)
– Home screening misses 42% of advanced adenomas
– Home screening is relatively cheap up front, but it can be more costly long-term
—The Cost of Home Screening—
Medicare and most insurance will cover 100% of the initial screening test chosen by a patient.
Follow up tests resulting from positive first test may not be covered by insurance.
A positive Home Screening will result in a colonoscopy as a probable next step. This may not be covered since the annual colon cancer screening benefit would have already been used up by home screening and subsequent testing may be seen as diagnostic or therapeutic.
