The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) has released a proposal for changing the reimbursement for lung cancer screening. The change would lower the age of eligibility for beneficiary reimbursement to 50 years (from the current 55 years).
Comments on the proposal can be made through December 16, 2021.
The move would bring Medicare and Medicaid reimbursement in line with current recommendations for lung cancer screening from the US Preventive Services Task Force (USPSTF). Medicaid coverage is currently uneven, and not all state programs cover it.
The USPSTF changed its recommendations for lung cancer screening earlier this year. In the updated final recommendations, the age at which screening starts was lowered from 55 to 50 years, and the criterion regarding smoking history was reduced from 30 to 20 pack-years.
That move nearly doubles the number of people who are now eligible for screening to 14.5 million individuals ― an increase of 81% (6.4 million adults) from their 2013 recommendations.
"This is great news because it means that nearly twice as many people are eligible to be screened, which we hope will allow clinicians to save more lives and help people remain healthy longer," commented John Wong, MD, chief science officer, vice chair for clinical affairs, and chief of the Division of Clinical Decision Making at the Task Force, at the time.
