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

Augusta University Health System

Lung screening gap across 25 counties in Georgia and South Carolina

110,000to200,000adults in its service area qualify for lung cancer screening and are not being screened

About 2,000 people here are diagnosed with lung cancer each year, and 66% are found at a late stage, when it is hardest to treat.

Explore the screening network
GATNFLNCSCAL
25 counties2 acute care hospitalsService area
130,000 to 250,000adults likely qualify under USPSTF 2021 criteria (estimate)
1,200lung cancer deaths a year in these counties, 2020 to 2024
17.1%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 Augusta University Health System'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.

Adults likely eligible, per neighborhood

0+130+180+220+270+340+410+

Acute care hospital in this system

Counties in the service area

CountyStateAdults likely eligibleLung cancer deaths per 100kMedicare screens billed locally, 2024
Fulton CountyGeorgia30,800 to 72,40024.21,448
Richland CountySouth Carolina14,800 to 30,90033.576
Lexington CountySouth Carolina13,900 to 27,00036.756
Chatham CountyGeorgia12,900 to 21,80027.9589
Aiken CountySouth Carolina8,800 to 16,50034.025
Richmond CountyGeorgia10,100 to 14,50040.2315
Muscogee CountyGeorgia9,200 to 13,60035.2248
Columbia CountyGeorgia6,000 to 11,60029.0151
Greenwood CountySouth Carolina3,700 to 6,40036.8973
Bulloch CountyGeorgia3,100 to 4,80030.296
Laurens CountyGeorgia3,100 to 3,90044.926
Baldwin CountyGeorgia2,200 to 3,60035.278
Edgefield CountySouth Carolina1,800 to 2,70032.4None billed locally
Greene CountyGeorgia1,200 to 2,00023.9None billed locally
Barnwell CountySouth Carolina1,500 to 2,00038.0None billed locally
Burke CountyGeorgia1,700 to 1,90039.0None billed locally
Emanuel CountyGeorgia1,500 to 1,80051.7None billed locally
McDuffie CountyGeorgia1,400 to 1,80041.5None billed locally
Washington CountyGeorgia1,400 to 1,80042.5None billed locally
Screven CountyGeorgia970 to 1,30035.9None billed locally
Jefferson CountyGeorgia1,100 to 1,30038.9None billed locally
Wilkes CountyGeorgia710 to 97040.3None billed locally
Allendale CountySouth Carolina590 to 89034.3None billed locally
Lincoln CountyGeorgia640 to 84032.0None billed locally
Jenkins CountyGeorgia690 to 76032.5None billed locally

13 of the 25 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 17.1% to the national rate of 18.2%, about 1,500 to 2,700 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 66% 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

2,000new lung cancers
1,300found at a late stage
1,200lung cancer deaths

NCI and CDC State Cancer Profiles, annual averages.

Screening at Augusta University Health System today

Clinicians at Augusta University Health System locations billed 201 low-dose CT lung screening reads to Medicare fee-for-service in 2024. Including Medicare Advantage and other insurers, we estimate about 420 to 1,200 screenings a year.

Most adults who qualify see a primary care clinician every year. We count 587 primary care clinicians, 15 pulmonologists and 7 thoracic surgeons practicing at Augusta University Health System 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 Augusta University Health System 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%).

2 acute care hospitals

  • Au Medical Center IncAugusta, GA
  • Wills Memorial HospitalWashington, GA

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 Augusta University Health System 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 Augusta University Health System'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