Epic Research is not viewable using Internet Explorer. Please try accessing it with an alternate browser.
Cosmos Study

Cancer Screening Rates Higher for Medicare Advantage Than Traditional Medicare

December 19, 2023
Dual-Team Study
Team A:Dave Little, MDEric Barkley 
Team B:Ally Paul, RNBrendan Joyce

Key Findings

  • Medicare Advantage patients have higher screening rates for breast cancer and colorectal cancer than traditional Medicare patients.  
  • Screening rates for both types of cancer are around 50–60% for both Medicare Advantage and traditional Medicare.

Cancer screening is a core component of preventive healthcare, allowing early identification and treatment of cancer to improve life expectancy and potentially prevent more advanced cancers.1 Breast and colorectal cancer screenings are recommended for many patients who are eligible for Medicare insurance coverage. Breast cancer screening is recommended biannually for women aged 50 to 74,2 and colorectal cancer screening by colonoscopy is recommended every 10 years for patients aged 45 to 75, and selectively to those ages 76 to 85.3 

We analyzed patients with continuous Medicare Advantage or traditional Medicare coverage to determine whether there were differences in cancer screening rates between groups. Both groups were similarly distributed by patient age, sex, race, and ethnicity. We found that screening rates for both breast and colorectal cancers were higher for the Medicare Advantage population compared to the traditional Medicare population, as shown in Figure 1. Around half of patients had a colorectal cancer screening when recommended. More than half of patients had recommended breast cancer screenings performed. 

Figure 1
Cancer Screening Rates for Medicare Advantage and Traditional Medicare
Cancer Screening Rates for Medicare Advantage and Traditional Medicare
Figure 1. Screening rates for breast and colorectal cancer by insurance type.

These screening rates may be undercounted as screenings performed outside of a Cosmos healthcare organization may not be represented in the data. This study is limited to cancer screening rates and did not assess cancer diagnosis rates or screening outcomes.

These data come from Cosmos, a HIPAA-defined Limited Data Set of more than 220 million patients from 221 Epic organizations including 1,260 hospitals and more than 27,100 clinics, serving patients in all 50 states and Lebanon. This study was completed by two teams that worked independently, each composed of a clinician and research scientists. The two teams came to similar conclusions. Graphics by AJ Hinkens.

References

  1. Screening tests. National Cancer Institute. Published March 24, 2015.  https://www.cancer.gov/about-cancer/screening/screening-tests. Accessed November 20, 2023. 
  2. Breast cancer: Screening. US Preventive Services Task Force. Published January 11, 2016.  https://www.uspreventiveservicestaskforce.org/uspstf/recommendation/breast-cancer-screening. Accessed November 20, 2023. 
  3. Colorectal cancer: Screening. US Preventive Services Task Force. Published May 18, 2021.  https://www.uspreventiveservicestaskforce.org/uspstf/recommendation/colorectal-cancer-screening. Accessed November 20, 2023.