Cancer screenings at federally qualified health centers fall far behind national averages, study finds

Low-income communities often struggle to access healthcare services, but a new analysis of federally qualified health centers (FQHCs)—which provide quality care to patients regardless of ability to pay—has helped nail down one reason.

When it comes to screening for certain cancers, these nonprofit community health centers have fallen far behind the national average, according to a study led by cancer center researchers at the University of Texas MD Anderson and the University of New Mexico.

Of eligible patients, FQHCs only screened 45.4% for breast cancer, 51% for cervical cancer, and 40.2% for colorectal cancer—versus the average national screening rates of 78.2% for breast cancer, 82.9% for cervical cancer, and 72.3% for colorectal cancer, according to the study, which published in JAMA on April 29.

If a patient can’t access screenings, they could miss out on vital treatments to prevent cancer from worsening or developing at all, Jane Montealegre, one of the study’s authors, said.

FQHCs served more than 30.5 million people in 2022, according to the federal Health Resources & Services Administration.

“The disparities that we see in screening test utilization are also reflected in who gets cancer and what stage they get cancer at, and consequently, who ends up dying from cancer,” Montealegre told Healthcare Brew.

Cancer screenings require FQHC patients to find an additional provider, which increases cost, transportation, and time barriers, Montealegre said.

But there’s a silver lining: Researchers now know that this is a major factor contributing to nationwide disparities in screening across demographics, Montealegre said.

“If we were to increase our screening efforts in FQHCs through a very targeted scale-up of efforts,” Montealegre said, “we could really put a big dent in the disparities that we see across racial/ethnic lines and uninsured versus insured lines.”