alt Hacker News> Basically nobody else is recommending colonoscopies to the entire population with no cheaper tests
I'm not sure if I understand what you're saying. Kaiser Permanente sends me a take-at-home colonoscopy test every year, and some light googling suggests the cost is $20-$89. I've never done an in-person colonoscopy, but the home version must be cheaper, right?
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I haven't heard of a take-home colonoscopy. How does that work?
Unless you're putting a camera into your colon, it's not a colonoscopy
Based on my personal experience with Kaiser and their home fecal test (FIT test) as a cheaper screening method, I suggest opting out of it and insisting on a colonoscopy.
The problem is that the fecal tests are totally inconclusive. Every positive test must be confirmed by a colonoscopy. And then you get into tricky waters with insurance. My Kaiser gastro doc insisted that my colonoscopy after a positive home FIT test would be billed as diagnostic and not covered at no charge as preventive screening. Which means I would pay over $2k. Despite the USPSTF publishing explicit guidance on this exact scenario still being screening. He was dead wrong, and I wasn't billed, but he and his department did everything they could to discourage me from following up with a colonoscopy.
And at one point he even turned the tables around on me and said this was all a consequence of my having opted for the FIT test instead of a colonoscopy. Which I never did, I was not given a choice. But from his statement I would assume that you can opt in to colonoscopy instead at Kaiser. Then again this could be yet another piece of misinformation on his part.
This is standard in Australia. Everyone between 50 and 74 receives a free kit in the mail every two years, and there are regular TV ads from the federal government (featuring actual TV stars) encouraging everyone to do the test and mail the results in.