Dear AuntMinnie Insider,
Amid the sometimes raucous political and scientific debate that has roiled virtual colonoscopy screening from the start, a Wisconsin HMO has quietly begun reimbursing the virtual exam for its members aged 50 and older. The new program represents an important advance for VC, and provides new momentum for its use in screening asymptomatic patients for colorectal cancer. Last week two additional HMOs in the dairy state reportedly jumped on the reimbursement bandwagon as well.
Under the program that began in April, Dr. Perry Pickhardt from the University of Wisconsin Medical School in Madison has been screening his patients with an exam protocol very similar to the one developed for the landmark Department of Defense study published last December. That study found that virtual colonoscopy's sensitivity trended slightly higher than that of conventional colonoscopy in a cohort of 1,233 average-risk patients.
And while Pickhardt's program is just getting started, it has already yielded a diagnostic surprise or two very close to home, he says. You'll find all of the details about the new program in this month's Insider Exclusive, published for our VC Insider subscribers before it's made available to the rest of AuntMinnie's members.
