Mailed FIT Outreach to Improve Colon Cancer Screening in the Safety-net System

Rationale: Since uptake of colorectal cancer (CRC) screening is suboptimal in the SF safety-net system and access to care may be limited, novel models of health care delivery are warranted. The overall hypothesis is that a centralized panel management model with mailed fecal immunochemical test (FIT) will be effective at increasing the uptake of CRC screening and could be developed and sustained within the typical parameters of cost-effectiveness and budget impact analyses. Barriers to immunization of adults include missed opportunities during visits, limited access to providers, and provider and patient beliefs of efficacy.

Design: To rigorously examine the benefit of the centralized panel management to improve uptake of CRC screening with mailed FIT, the electronic health system will be used to identify eligible patients who are not up-to-date with CRC screening. Broadly, patients will be randomized 1:1 to usual care or intervention arm, stratified by clinic, gender, prior screening, and race to receive mailed FIT kits + usual care versus usual care alone. The cost-effectiveness of no screening, usual care, and centralized management with mailed FIT outreach will be compared using mathematical simulation models.