Dear AuntMinnie Insider,
A lot of folks think the U.S. Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) got it wrong when it decided in May to deny Medicare coverage for screening virtual colonoscopy.
Relying on the novel view that data favorable to VC were inadequate because the average age of participants in screening trials was a decade younger than the average Medicare recipient, the CMS panel said it would need new evidence focusing on an older demographic -- and, inevitably, a lengthy new proposed coverage process.
But an editorial in the Journal of the American College of Radiology takes the CMS panel to task, charging that it ignored existing data on older individuals, and warning that age-based coverage considerations were "a slippery slope" amid current efforts to reform healthcare. Get the rest of the story by clicking here.
In other news, VC is not just for screening anymore: Increasingly, it is becoming the method of choice for evaluating and staging diverticular disease, scourge of Western nations and their careless eating habits. In this issue's Insider Exclusive, Dr. Patrick Rogalla discusses clinical presentation, sequelae, imaging alternatives -- and two staging systems that see diverticular disease somewhat differently.
Meanwhile, an Italian group compared three VC tagging regimens, all based on oral iodinated contrast, the key ingredient in reduced-prep virtual colonoscopy. One of them worked best, but patients preferred the runner-up.
In a painstaking study from Chicago, polyp measurement accuracy was assessed in both 2D and 3D reading methods. Although differences between the viewing methods weren't overwhelming, there was a winner.
In Texas, researchers found that access to healthcare and regular doctor visits were key factors in (non-VC) colorectal cancer screening. But healthcare resources are inadequate to provide universal access to colonoscopy, they warned. Maybe the outlook would be sunnier if additional screening choices were available, since another study found that more patients undergoing both exams would choose VC for their next screening.
You're invited to scroll down for the rest of the VC news that's fit to print (but, thankfully, doesn't have to be) in our Virtual Colonoscopy Digital Community.
