Recent Findings from Washington University Provide New Insights into Military Medicine (Health Insurance Type and Lung Cancer Stage Shift Following Coverage of Screening): Military Medicine

2026 AUG 14 (NewsRx) -- By a News Reporter-Staff News Editor at Defense & Aerospace Daily -- Research findings on Military Medicine are discussed in a new report. According to news originating from St. Louis, Missouri, by NewsRx correspondents, research stated, “To examine the role of insurance coverage of lung cancer screening in driving shifts in lung cancer stage at diagnosis. We performed difference-in-differences (DID) analyses to compare changes in the proportion of early-stage lung cancer diagnosis between pre-coverage (2007-2014) and post-coverage (2015-2019) periods across insurance groups.”

Funders for this research include National Institute on Minority Health and Health Disparities, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Our news journalists obtained a quote from the research from Washington University, “Using the National Cancer Institute’s Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results database, we identified patients with non-small cell lung cancer aged 55-77 years and diagnosed between 2007 and 2019. Health insurance at diagnosis was categorized as private, Medicare (fee-for-service [FFS], FFS with supplemental private coverage, FFS with Medicaid, and Medicare Advantage with and without Medicaid), Medicaid (FFS and managed care), military health plans, and uninsured. Among 227,112 patients, 63,676 (28.04%) had private insurance, 130,770 (57.58%) Medicare, 14,982 (6.60%) Medicaid, 5941 (2.62%) military health insurance, and 11,743 (5.17%) were uninsured. Compared with uninsured patients, a significantly greater increase in the proportion of early-stage lung cancer diagnosis between pre-coverage and post-coverage periods was observed among Medicaid patients (DID = 2.88 percentage points [ppt], 95% CI 0.73-5.02 ppt), but not patients with private insurance, Medicare, or military health insurance. Among Medicaid beneficiaries, those in managed care showed a significantly greater shift compared with those in FFS during 4-5 years post-coverage (DID = 8.22 ppt, 95% CI 4.51-11.93 ppt). Among Medicare FFS beneficiaries, dual enrollment in Medicaid was associated with a significantly smaller increase in the proportion of early-stage diagnosis compared with FFS-only enrollment during 4-5 years post-coverage (DID = -4.40 ppt, 95% CI [-6.40]-[-2.40] ppt). The results suggest that beneficial stage shifts following the recommendation for lung cancer screening varied by health insurance status and type.”

According to the news editors, the research concluded: “Addressing patient, provider, and system-level barriers to lung cancer screening and downstream care is essential to translate lung cancer screening coverage into earlier-stage diagnosis.”

This research has been peer-reviewed.

For more information on this research see: Health Insurance Type and Lung Cancer Stage Shift Following Coverage of Screening. Health Services Research, 2026;61(4). Health Services Research can be contacted at: Wiley, 111 River St, Hoboken 07030-5774, NJ, USA. (Wiley-Blackwell - http://www.wiley.com/; Health Services Research - http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/journal/10.1111/(ISSN)1475-6773)

The news correspondents report that additional information may be obtained from Timothy McBride, School of Public Health, Washington University, St. Louis, Missouri, United States. Additional authors for this research include Min Lian, Benjamin Kozower, Maria Baggstrom and Ying Liu.

The direct object identifier (DOI) for that additional information is: https://doi.org/10.1111/1475-6773.70154. This DOI is a link to an online electronic document that is either free or for purchase, and can be your direct source for a journal article and its citation.

The publisher’s contact information for the journal Health Services Research is: Wiley, 111 River St, Hoboken 07030-5774, NJ, USA.

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