Colorectal Cancer Screening Project | 2023-Advocacy Efforts to Close the Gap in Diagnostic Colonoscopy

Video Transcription

Video Summary

The speaker, Molly MacDonald, is the Director of Advocacy at Fight Colorectal Cancer. She discusses the organization's advocacy efforts aimed at increasing access to colorectal cancer screening and removing out-of-pocket costs for follow-up colonoscopies. Fight Colorectal Cancer provides funding and support to state coalitions working on policy changes, and they have seen success in Kentucky and California. MacDonald also highlights recent policy changes at the federal level that require commercial plans to cover follow-up colonoscopies without out-of-pocket costs. However, she acknowledges that implementation challenges and gaps in coverage still exist. Fight Colorectal Cancer has developed resources and partnerships to help disseminate information to patients, health insurers, physicians, and coding departments. They are also monitoring a court case in Texas that could potentially impact the preventative services provision of the Affordable Care Act. MacDonald concludes by mentioning Fight CRC's advocacy for increased funding for the colorectal cancer control program to improve access to screening for underserved communities.

Keywords

colorectal cancer screening

out-of-pocket costs

policy changes

underserved communities

preventative services provision