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

SSM Health

Lung screening gap across 37 counties in Illinois, Missouri, Oklahoma and Wisconsin

210,000to390,000adults in its service area qualify for lung cancer screening and are not being screened

About 4,300 people here are diagnosed with lung cancer each year, and 64% are found at a late stage, when it is hardest to treat.

Explore the screening network
KYMOILIN
37 counties37 acute care hospitalsService areaShowing the Illinois and Missouri region; all regions are mapped below.
250,000 to 470,000adults likely qualify under USPSTF 2021 criteria (estimate)
2,600lung cancer deaths a year in these counties, 2020 to 2024
17.3%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 SSM 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.

Illinois and Missouri

Oklahoma

Wisconsin

Adults likely eligible, per neighborhood

0+170+230+280+340+410+500+

Acute care hospital in this system

Counties in the service area

CountyStateAdults likely eligibleLung cancer deaths per 100kMedicare screens billed locally, 2024
St. Louis CountyMissouri44,500 to 96,00032.61,889
Oklahoma CountyOklahoma33,200 to 67,80038.12,043
Dane CountyWisconsin16,500 to 37,70023.41,467
St. Charles CountyMissouri17,200 to 36,70032.2264
St. Louis cityMissouri13,700 to 26,60039.92,775
Cleveland CountyOklahoma11,600 to 23,00033.1148
Jefferson CountyMissouri13,500 to 21,40048.0295
Madison CountyIllinois12,000 to 20,90043.943
St. Clair CountyIllinois12,000 to 19,80039.51,097
Rock CountyWisconsin8,400 to 13,30036.4253
Canadian CountyOklahoma6,900 to 11,90032.5None billed locally
Franklin CountyMissouri6,500 to 10,40046.135
Fond du Lac CountyWisconsin5,500 to 8,80026.616
Dodge CountyWisconsin5,000 to 7,70032.4None billed locally
Cole CountyMissouri3,700 to 7,20031.3334
Pottawatomie CountyOklahoma4,400 to 6,80052.9None billed locally
Sauk CountyWisconsin3,600 to 5,50039.2None billed locally
Lincoln CountyMissouri3,700 to 5,10051.3None billed locally
Columbia CountyWisconsin3,100 to 5,10028.7None billed locally
McClain CountyOklahoma2,400 to 3,70043.1None billed locally
Lincoln CountyOklahoma2,300 to 3,60049.8None billed locally
Warren CountyMissouri2,400 to 3,60044.9None billed locally
Green CountyWisconsin1,900 to 3,30032.5None billed locally
Franklin CountyIllinois2,400 to 3,20048.8None billed locally
Jefferson CountyIllinois2,100 to 3,10048.6287
Marion CountyIllinois2,200 to 3,10056.6None billed locally
Seminole CountyOklahoma1,700 to 2,50060.2None billed locally
Custer CountyOklahoma1,100 to 2,30033.4None billed locally
Iowa CountyWisconsin1,300 to 2,20034.6None billed locally
Perry CountyIllinois1,300 to 1,70044.0None billed locally
Washington CountyIllinois710 to 1,20035.4None billed locally
Madison CountyMissouri900 to 1,20066.9None billed locally
Washita CountyOklahoma640 to 1,10039.6None billed locally
Clay CountyIllinois830 to 1,10055.3None billed locally
Blaine CountyOklahoma500 to 1,00047.0None billed locally
Woods CountyOklahoma350 to 73044.7None billed locally
Harper CountyOklahoma190 to 370—None billed locally

23 of the 37 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 17.3% to the national rate of 18.2%, about 2,300 to 4,400 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 64% 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

4,300new lung cancers
2,800found at a late stage
2,600lung cancer deaths

NCI and CDC State Cancer Profiles, annual averages.

Screening at SSM Health today

Clinicians at SSM Health locations billed 1,636 low-dose CT lung screening reads to Medicare fee-for-service in 2024. Including Medicare Advantage and other insurers, we estimate about 3,400 to 9,800 screenings a year.

Most adults who qualify see a primary care clinician every year. We count 2,386 primary care clinicians, 61 pulmonologists and 22 thoracic surgeons practicing at SSM 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 SSM 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 (52%, CMS) and, at the high end, by the share of eligible adults under 65 (65%).

37 acute care hospitals

  • SSM Health St Mary's Hospital - St LouisSaint Louis, MO
  • St Anthony HospitalOklahoma City, OK
  • SSM Health Depaul HospitalBridgeton, MO
  • SSM Health St Joseph Hospital-St CharlesSaint Charles, MO
  • SSM Health Saint Louis University HospitalSaint Louis, MO
  • St. Marys HospitalMadison, WI
  • SSM Health St Clare HospitalFenton, MO
  • SSM Health St Joseph Hospital-Lake Saint LouisLake Saint Louis, MO
  • SSM Health St. Mary's Hospital - Jefferson CityJefferson City, MO
  • SSM Health St Anthony Hospital - MidwestMidwest City, OK
  • SSM Health Good Samaritan HospitalMount Vernon, IL
  • SSM Health St. Marys HospitalCentralia, IL

And 25 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 SSM 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 SSM 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