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

Unitypoint Health

Lung screening gap across 41 counties in Illinois, Iowa, Nebraska and Wisconsin

95,000to170,000adults 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 65% are found at a late stage, when it is hardest to treat.

Explore the screening network
WIMOILMNIASDNEINKS
41 counties29 acute care hospitalsService area
120,000 to 210,000adults likely qualify under USPSTF 2021 criteria (estimate)
1,100lung cancer deaths a year in these counties, 2020 to 2024
19.1%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 Unitypoint 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.

Adults likely eligible, per neighborhood

0+170+220+260+290+350+420+

Acute care hospital in this system

Counties in the service area

CountyStateAdults likely eligibleLung cancer deaths per 100kMedicare screens billed locally, 2024
Dane CountyWisconsin16,500 to 37,70023.41,467
Polk CountyIowa19,900 to 34,50037.81,803
Linn CountyIowa9,900 to 17,10033.31,245
Scott CountyIowa8,100 to 13,90033.8532
Rock Island CountyIllinois6,900 to 11,80035.1383
Black Hawk CountyIowa6,200 to 9,90035.4306
Woodbury CountyIowa5,100 to 7,90043.2119
Dubuque CountyIowa4,500 to 7,80027.9305
Dallas CountyIowa3,500 to 5,70022.2195
Story CountyIowa2,600 to 5,50024.7539
Henry CountyIllinois2,400 to 4,10038.2None billed locally
Warren CountyIowa2,300 to 3,90029.274
Muscatine CountyIowa2,300 to 3,50031.4None billed locally
Marshall CountyIowa2,000 to 3,30034.5None billed locally
Jasper CountyIowa2,200 to 3,20037.0None billed locally
Webster CountyIowa1,900 to 3,10036.9None billed locally
Benton CountyIowa1,400 to 2,20029.8None billed locally
Plymouth CountyIowa1,300 to 2,10034.0None billed locally
Bremer CountyIowa1,100 to 2,00019.1None billed locally
Jones CountyIowa1,300 to 1,80038.7None billed locally
Buchanan CountyIowa1,100 to 1,70036.4None billed locally
Cedar CountyIowa1,000 to 1,60030.6None billed locally
Hancock CountyIllinois970 to 1,60035.8None billed locally
Delaware CountyIowa1,100 to 1,60031.0None billed locally
Tama CountyIowa1,000 to 1,60032.6None billed locally
Poweshiek CountyIowa940 to 1,50038.2None billed locally
Buena Vista CountyIowa960 to 1,50026.2None billed locally
Dakota CountyNebraska870 to 1,40033.9None billed locally
Mercer CountyIllinois880 to 1,40057.9None billed locally
Madison CountyIowa860 to 1,30032.7None billed locally
Butler CountyIowa840 to 1,30030.6None billed locally
Grundy CountyIowa600 to 1,00030.5None billed locally
Union CountyIowa650 to 1,00042.9None billed locally
Guthrie CountyIowa630 to 1,00035.1None billed locally
Sac CountyIowa550 to 92022.2None billed locally
Calhoun CountyIowa550 to 88028.4None billed locally
Humboldt CountyIowa550 to 86028.7None billed locally
Greene CountyIowa550 to 83038.9None billed locally
Clarke CountyIowa610 to 81044.4None billed locally
Lucas CountyIowa580 to 80040.8None billed locally
Pocahontas CountyIowa410 to 64041.0None billed locally

30 of the 41 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 19.1% to 24.1%, five points above today, about 5,900 to 10,300 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

2,000new lung cancers
1,300found at a late stage
1,100lung cancer deaths

NCI and CDC State Cancer Profiles, annual averages.

Screening at Unitypoint Health today

Clinicians at Unitypoint Health locations billed 773 low-dose CT lung screening reads to Medicare fee-for-service in 2024. Including Medicare Advantage and other insurers, we estimate about 1,400 to 3,800 screenings a year.

Most adults who qualify see a primary care clinician every year. We count 1,831 primary care clinicians, 14 pulmonologists and 13 thoracic surgeons practicing at Unitypoint 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 Unitypoint 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 (43%, CMS) and, at the high end, by the share of eligible adults under 65 (64%).

29 acute care hospitals

  • Iowa Methodist Medical CenterDes Moines, IA
  • Meriter Hospital Inc.Madison, WI
  • St. Lukes Methodist HospitalCedar Rapids, IA
  • Trinity Rock IslandRock Island, IL
  • Allen Memorial HospitalWaterloo, IA
  • St. Lukes Regl Medical CenterSioux City, IA
  • Trinity BettendorfBettendorf, IA
  • The Finley HospitalDubuque, IA
  • Trinity Regional Medical CenterFort Dodge, IA
  • Grinnell Regional Medical CenterGrinnell, IA
  • Peoples Memorial HospitalIndependence, IA
  • Buena Vista Regional Medical CenterStorm Lake, IA

And 17 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 Unitypoint 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 Unitypoint 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