March is Colorectal Cancer Awareness Month. AmeriHealth encourages you to reach out to all of your patients meeting the colon cancer screening criteria to ensure they receive the necessary colon cancer screenings. Your personal recommendation has a tremendous influence on patients? decisions to seek recommended preventive health screenings, and adherence to the colorectal cancer screening guidelines may lead to improved patient outcomes. Colorectal cancer is the second leading cause of cancer-related deaths for men and women in the United States. Colon cancer is a highly treatable and possibly curable disease if found in its early stages. We urge you to encourage your patients approaching age 50 (age 45 for African Americans) to be screened for colorectal cancer. Those patients with certain risk factors or family history should be screened earlier, starting at age 40, or ten years younger than the youngest relative diagnosed with colon cancer. New guidelines also recommend that patients with a history of irritable bowel disease, ulcerative colitis, or Crohn?s disease be screened ten years after symptoms begin.

Screening options

Screening does not necessarily mean colonoscopy. Although this is the most specific diagnostic screening and should be the screening of choice for high-risk patients, alternative methods such as fecal occult blood test (FOBT) or fecal immunochemical test (FIT) can be used for patients with average risk. Please discuss all screening options with your patients. Individual clinical decisions should be tailored to specific patient medical and psychosocial needs. To view our plan-adopted guidelines, see Medical Policy #11.03.12j: Colorectal Cancer Screening on our medical policy portal. The information contained within this policy is adapted from national sources and may evolve rapidly. As changes occur, please update your recommendations accordingly.