Waiving Co-pay for Screening Colonoscopy Increases Use

The Affordable Care Act mandates that Medicare, Medicaid, and commercial insurance plans that are not grandfathered cannot impose co-pays for preventive services that have received A or B recommendations from the United States Preventive Services Task Force (USPSTF). Colorectal cancer screening, including screening by fecal occult blood test, flexible sigmoidoscopy, barium enema, and colonoscopy, has a grade A rating from the USPSTF.

The current study examined the impact of the co-pay waiver on screening colonoscopy use in 59,855 adults (age range, 50–64) in the University of Texas health plan from 2002 through 2009. Investigators calculated age- and sex-standardized incidence rates of screening colonoscopy for the years 2004 through 2008 an…