Study: Medicaid patients don't get cancer screening

Anne Zieger — Wed, 15 Oct 2008 10:19:47 -0400

Medicaid patients may not be getting the screening they need for cancers such as colorectal, breast, and cervical cancer--and a new study suggests that it may be due in large part to their primary care physicians failing to recommend the screenings.

The study, done in North Carolina, found that colorectal, breast and cervical cancer screening were documented as recommended by the primary-care provider for only 52.7 percent, 60.4 percent and 51.5 percent of eligible patients, respectively. This, in spite of the fact that all patients whose records were studied were eligible for this screening.

When rates of actual screenings were studied, 28.2 percent of patients had had screening for colorectal cancer, 31.7 percent got mammography within two years, and 31.6 percent had a Papanicolaou [cervical cancer] test within three years. This is substantially lower than the rates of screening in the general population.

These three types of cancer were specifically studied because they are all potentially curable if discovered and treated early. The government is attempting to eliminate these disparities in screening as part of the Healthy People 2010 Plan.

To learn more about these disparities:
- Read this Washington Post piece

SPOTLIGHT: Broader health coverage could reduce disparities, lawmakers say

Fri, 13 Jun 2008 06:59:52 -0400

SPOTLIGHT... Broader health coverage could reduce disparities, lawmakers say
While it wouldn't eliminate health disparities entirely, proposals to expand health insurance to all U.S. residents could reduce those disparities, according to a group of lawmakers and healthcare experts who spoke this week at a House Ways and Means Health Subcommittee hearing. Right now, they noted, women and racial and ethnic minorities often have less access to care, receive lower quality care, and have more negative outcomes than other groups, something that is influenced, though not entirely created, by a lack of health insurance. Article

Health Disparities

Study: Medicaid patients don't get cancer screening

SPOTLIGHT: Broader health coverage could reduce disparities, lawmakers say