Oatmeal Healthoatmealhealth.com · public-data estimate, October 2026

Christus Health

Lung screening gap across 42 counties in Arkansas, Louisiana, New Mexico and Texas

450,000to880,000adults in its service area qualify for lung cancer screening and are not being screened

About 6,100 people here are diagnosed with lung cancer each year, and 65% are found at a late stage, when it is hardest to treat.

Explore the screening network
TXLAARMSOK
42 counties26 acute care hospitalsService areaShowing the Arkansas, Louisiana and Texas region; all regions are mapped below.
510,000 to 1Madults likely qualify under USPSTF 2021 criteria (estimate)
3,800lung cancer deaths a year in these counties, 2020 to 2024
12.4%of eligible adults screened in these states, vs 18.2% nationally

Estimates from public data only; no patient information. Sources and method below.

Where the eligible adults live

The counties where most of Christus Health's Medicare inpatients live. Darker areas hold more adults who likely qualify, which is where outreach would start. Hover or tap any area for its estimate.

Arkansas, Louisiana and Texas

Texas

New Mexico

Adults likely eligible, per county

0+3,000+3,700+4,600+6,600+13,400+19,500+

Acute care hospital in this system

Counties in the service area

CountyStateAdults likely eligibleLung cancer deaths per 100kMedicare screens billed locally, 2024
Harris CountyTexas169,600 to 333,40023.52,976
Dallas CountyTexas88,000 to 187,00026.52,029
Bexar CountyTexas71,700 to 164,90022.21,098
Nueces CountyTexas14,300 to 35,90023.0603
Caddo ParishLouisiana13,800 to 23,20037.3510
Jefferson CountyTexas12,500 to 19,50033.1280
Santa Fe CountyNew Mexico6,700 to 19,00014.9161
Calcasieu ParishLouisiana11,300 to 18,60041.6268
Smith CountyTexas10,700 to 18,10030.71,272
Hays CountyTexas8,300 to 15,80021.265
Comal CountyTexas7,900 to 14,20027.4None billed locally
Guadalupe CountyTexas7,600 to 13,40026.476
Rapides ParishLouisiana7,800 to 12,40038.9119
Bossier ParishLouisiana6,300 to 11,20041.7None billed locally
Gregg CountyTexas5,900 to 9,20035.5369
Henderson CountyTexas5,400 to 7,80049.9None billed locally
Bowie CountyTexas4,800 to 7,20046.5486
Orange CountyTexas4,300 to 6,60042.9None billed locally
San Patricio CountyTexas3,200 to 6,50028.5None billed locally
Harrison CountyTexas3,600 to 5,40037.1None billed locally
Van Zandt CountyTexas3,800 to 5,10036.8None billed locally
Hardin CountyTexas3,000 to 4,60041.1None billed locally
Jim Wells CountyTexas1,800 to 4,60025.0None billed locally
Wood CountyTexas3,100 to 4,60043.6None billed locally
Anderson CountyTexas3,400 to 4,50041.950
Rusk CountyTexas2,900 to 4,40042.4None billed locally
Miller CountyArkansas2,700 to 4,30046.1None billed locally
Cherokee CountyTexas3,000 to 4,30036.8None billed locally
Avoyelles ParishLouisiana3,000 to 3,90053.9None billed locally
Vernon ParishLouisiana2,300 to 3,70047.295
Upshur CountyTexas2,500 to 3,60045.8None billed locally
Natchitoches ParishLouisiana2,000 to 3,30035.137
Evangeline ParishLouisiana2,300 to 3,20051.8None billed locally
Hopkins CountyTexas2,000 to 3,10041.5None billed locally
Jasper CountyTexas2,300 to 3,10043.7None billed locally
Bee CountyTexas1,400 to 3,00030.5None billed locally
De Soto ParishLouisiana2,000 to 2,80042.2None billed locally
Cass CountyTexas1,900 to 2,80054.1None billed locally
Kleberg CountyTexas950 to 2,60020.6None billed locally
Grant ParishLouisiana1,400 to 2,10043.3None billed locally
Little River CountyArkansas800 to 1,40043.8None billed locally
Red River ParishLouisiana580 to 85048.5None billed locally

25 of the 42 counties had no Medicare lung screening reads billed from a local address in 2024. County names link to their Missing Millions page.

What closing the gap would mean

If screening in these counties rose from 12.4% to the national rate of 18.2%, about 29,600 to 58,000 more people would be screened each year.

In the National Lung Screening Trial, low-dose CT screening lowered lung cancer deaths by 20% compared with chest X-ray. Today about 65% of lung cancers here are found at a late stage.

Illustrative estimate: eligible adults (range) times the change in screening rate. Not a forecast or a guarantee.

Each year in these counties

6,100new lung cancers
4,000found at a late stage
3,800lung cancer deaths

NCI and CDC State Cancer Profiles, annual averages.

Screening at Christus Health today

Clinicians at Christus Health locations billed 669 low-dose CT lung screening reads to Medicare fee-for-service in 2024. Including Medicare Advantage and other insurers, we estimate about 1,600 to 4,700 screenings a year.

Most adults who qualify see a primary care clinician every year. We count 1,661 primary care clinicians, 32 pulmonologists and 24 thoracic surgeons practicing at Christus Health locations. A 20 pack-year smoking history is often missing from structured EHR fields, so many eligible patients are never flagged.

CMS Medicare Physician and Other Practitioners 2024 (CPT 71271); clinicians matched to Christus Health by practice address using the AHRQ Compendium of U.S. Health Systems 2023, so reads billed by outside radiology groups are not included. The all-payer estimate scales Medicare fee-for-service by the local Medicare Advantage share (57%, CMS) and, at the high end, by the share of eligible adults under 65 (67%).

26 acute care hospitals

  • Christus Mother Frances Hosp-TylerTyler, TX
  • Christus Spohn Hosp Corpus ChristiCorpus Christi, TX
  • Santa Rosa HealthcareSan Antonio, TX
  • Christus HospitalBeaumont, TX
  • Good Shepherd Medical CenterMarshall, TX
  • Christus St MichaelTexarkana, TX
  • St. Frances Cabrini HospitalAlexandria, LA
  • Highland Medical CenterShreveport, LA
  • St. Vincent HospitalSanta Fe, NM
  • Childrens Hospital of San AntonioSan Antonio, TX
  • Christus Santa Rosa - San MarcosSan Marcos, TX
  • St. Patrick HospitalLake Charles, LA

And 14 more acute care hospitals.

Find them, reach them, give radiologists a second opinion

LungIQ Find

Reads clinical notes, diagnoses and medications in the EHR and returns a ranked list of patients likely eligible, including those whose pack-year history is missing. Start with a CSV export refreshed every 1, 3 or 6 months, or connect through FHIR or HL7.

LungNAV Reach

An AI patient navigator that texts and calls patients in 70+ languages, answers questions about the scan, and hands each patient to your scheduling team or nurse navigators with a call summary.

LungAI Second opinion

Gives radiologists a malignancy risk score for each nodule, factoring in change since the prior scan, inside the PACS and CADe software they already use. The radiologist makes the final call.

LungAI is an investigational medical device and has not been cleared by FDA. It is not commercially available in the United States.

How we estimate the gap

Modeled estimates from public data. They are not a count of Christus Health patients and contain no patient information.

  • Service area: CMS Hospital Service Area File 2025 (counties within 120 miles of a system hospital holding 80% of its Medicare inpatients, plus any county with at least 1%); hospitals from the AHRQ Compendium of U.S. Health Systems, 2023.
  • Eligible adults, low estimate: Oatmeal Health Missing Millions (Census 2025 population, CDC PLACES smoking, USPSTF 2021).
  • Eligible adults, high estimate: University of Minnesota National Lung Cancer Screening Estimates (Haynes 2026), which also counts former smokers.
  • Screening rate: American Lung Association, State of Lung Cancer 2025.
  • Lung cancer cases and deaths: NCI and CDC State Cancer Profiles (incidence 2019 to 2023, deaths 2020 to 2024).
  • Screening volume: CMS Medicare Physician and Other Practitioners, 2024; CMS Medicare Advantage State/County Penetration, September 2026.

LungAI is an investigational medical device and has not been cleared by FDA. Oatmeal Health is preparing a 510(k) premarket notification. LungAI is not commercially available in the United States.

See Christus Health's own numbers

In a 30 minute review we replace these public estimates with counts from your own records and agree on what a first program would look like.

Request a private screening review