Access to Lung Cancer Screening in the Veterans Health Administration: Does Geographic Distribution Match Need in the Population?

ABSTRACT:

Background

Studies show uneven access to Medicare-approved lung cancer screening (LCS) programs across the United States. The Veterans Health Administration (VA), the largest national US integrated health system, is potentially well positioned to coordinate LCS services across regional units to ensure that access matches distribution of need nationally.

Research question

To what extent does LCS access (considering both VA and partner sites) and use match the distribution of eligible Veterans at state and regional levels?

Methods

In this retrospective analysis, we identified LCS examinations in VA facilities between 2013 and 2019 from the VA Corporate Data Warehouse and plotted VA facilities with LCS geographically. We compared estimated LCS rates (unique Veterans scre

SUBMITTER: Boudreau JH 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC8640836 | biostudies-literature | 2021 Jul

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature