The Colorado Colorectal Screening Program began in 2004 screening uninsured people by linking community primary care clinics to endoscopists. Funding comes from an additional tax on tobacco. Since its beginning in 2004, CCSP has screened 6,850 people.
The program estimates that it has prevented 180 cases of colorectal cancer and 80 deaths.
Primary focus is on the uninsured 50 to 64, but colonoscopies are also offered to high-risk people under 50. Program participants need to have incomes below 250 percent of poverty.
Centered at the University of Colorado at Denver, the program works with more than 65 community clinics throughout Colorado. Patient navigators in the clinics locate patients in need of screening, arrange an appointment with a participating doctor for a colonoscopy, and remove barriers to completing the screening.
If cancer is found during screening, the program is able to cover treatment costs not paid by other resources.
On March 5, 2009 the program held its annual meeting followed by a Statewide Dialogue on Colorectal Cancer Screening.
Leave a Reply
Your comments are welcome. However, specific medical advice will not be provided. Generic QUESTIONS can be directed to our Answer Line team at http://fightcolorectalcancer.org/awareness/answer-line or by calling us at 1-877-427-2111 9:00 AM – 5:00 PM Eastern time, Monday – Friday. We urge you to consult with a qualified physician for diagnosis and for answers to your personal questions. Fight Colorectal Cancer is not responsible for the medical accuracy of any comments left by persons other than Fight Colorectal Cancer staff members. Fight Colorectal Cancer staff members monitor comments and may respond publicly where appropriate.
Please note that we automatically publish the name that you enter next to your post. Also note that our pages are automatically indexed by Google and other search engines, and your name may therefore appear in search results on those sites. So if you wish to remain anonymous please use a different name or enter 'Anon' as the name.
We regret that we are unable to privately answer questions left as comments. So please do not include your phone number, email or mailing address in the body of your comment.