ADVOCACY SPOTLIGHT: ASCA Advocacy Results in Medicare CRC Policy Changes

ADVOCACY SPOTLIGHT

ASCA Advocacy Results in Medicare CRC Policy Changes

The Removing Barriers to Colorectal Cancer Screening Act phases out coinsurance related to screening services starting this year

In recent years, Congress and the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) have enacted several policy changes that improve access to colorectal cancer (CRC) screening. This includes closing a loophole that allowed patients to be charged coinsurance if a polyp were discovered during a screening colonoscopy, lowering the coverage age for CRC tests and expanding the types of CRC tests covered by Medicare. Although the path to passage of these lifesaving policies was not always a straight line, ASCA supported these changes through numerous formal comments and advocacy sign-on letters. According to ECG Management Consultants’ analysis of Medicare data, three of the top four Medicare codes performed in ASCs by volume relate to colonoscopy, and ASCs perform about half of all Medicare colonoscopies.

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