Patient Care brings primary care clinicians a lot of medical news every day—it’s easy to miss an important study. The Daily Dose provides a concise summary of one of the website's leading stories you may not have seen.
On September 12, 2025, we reported on a study published in JAMA Network Open that was designed to determine the cost-effectiveness of providing rideshare for colonoscopy to patients with abnormal fecal immunochemical test (FIT) results.
The study
Using the CRC-Simulated Population Model for Incidence and Natural History, investigators modeled outcomes of providing patients with a rideshare valued at $40 or $100 to increase adherence to colonoscopy following abnormal FIT. Baseline analyses assumed a 35% completion rate. Simulations included 4 cohorts of 10 million individuals aged 45, 55, 65, and 70 years who were adherent to annual FIT-based screening. Lifetime outcomes included the number of CRC cases, deaths, and life-years gained (LYG) per 1 000 people screened and costs associated with improved completion of a colonoscopy after an abnormal FIT result, according to the study.
The findings
When colonoscopy completion was increased from 35% to 70% beginning at age 45, CRC incidence per 1 000 screened decreased by 26.3% (30.7 vs 41.6 cases) and mortality decreased by 32.9% (9.8 vs 14.6 deaths). This scenario resulted in 24.9 LYG per 1 000 screened. At $100 per ride, the intervention yielded $43 308 in direct lifetime cost per 1 000 screened and saved $330 587 per 1 000 screened.
Similar benefits were observed across age cohorts, though the magnitude of benefit decreased with advancing age due to higher baseline CRC incidence. The intervention remained cost-saving in most scenarios, with modeling suggesting rideshare costs could reach up to $498 per ride while maintaining cost-effectiveness.
Authors' comments
"With limited existing interventions to address this ever-growing challenge in cancer control, our results offer a potentially practical, scalable, and widely available intervention that could ultimately improve colorectal cancer care quality."
