Missing Millions · 2026 estimate
Faulkner County, Arkansas is missing 4,300 lung cancer screenings.
About 1 in 9 adults ages 50 to 80 here qualifies for lung cancer screening and hasn't been screened. Low-dose CT finds lung cancer early, when it is most treatable.
Sources: U.S. Census Bureau Population Estimates 2025; CDC PLACES 2025; USPSTF 2021; American Lung Association, State of Lung Cancer 2025. Modeled estimates; see methodology below.
How Faulkner County compares
Adults ages 50 to 80 who qualify for screening and haven't been screened.
Modeled estimates; national figures from American Lung Association, State of Lung Cancer 2025.
Closing the gap
Raising screening here to the national rate of 18.2% would mean about 80 more people screened each year.
Illustrative estimate based on the county's estimated eligible population.
Who is missing
Age
57% are ages 50 to 64
Of adults ages 50 to 80 here, 57% are 50 to 64 and 43% are 65 to 80. Younger adults are often still working and outside Medicare.
Smoking history
33% quit smoking
Of adults here who likely qualify, 33% are former smokers. They qualify for 15 years after quitting, but quit dates are rarely in the medical record, so they are the easiest to miss.
Language
2% limited English
2% of adults here speak English less than very well, most often Spanish.
Screening today
113 Medicare scans
Providers based in Faulkner County billed 113 low-dose CT screening scans to Medicare fee-for-service in 2024, across 1 billing provider. See the local network in the Lung Screening Atlas
Sources: age, U.S. Census Bureau Population Estimates 2025; smoking history, University of Minnesota National Lung Cancer Screening Estimates (Haynes 2026); language, American Community Survey 2020 to 2024 (table B16004), adults 18 and older; screening, CMS Medicare Physician and Other Practitioners 2024 (CPT 71271), by billing provider location.
Lung cancer in Faulkner County
Each year, on average. Screening finds lung cancer early, when it is most treatable.
Diagnosed
92 a year
New lung and bronchus cancers, 2019 to 2023 average.
Found late
58% at a late stage
About 53 a year are found after the cancer has spread, when it is hardest to treat.
Deaths
52 a year
Lung cancer deaths, 2020 to 2024 average.
Death rate
37.7 per 100,000
Lung cancer deaths, age-adjusted, compared with 30.2 nationally.
Source: National Cancer Institute and CDC, State Cancer Profiles. Counts under 16 a year are suppressed by NCI and not shown.
Health systems serving Faulkner County
Health systems whose patients come from Faulkner County, based on where their Medicare inpatients live. Each page shows the system's full service area, lung cancer data and screening today.
- Arkansas Childrens HospitalScreening gap page
- Baptist HealthScreening gap page
- Conway Regional Health SystemScreening gap page
- Unity HealthScreening gap page
- University of Arkansas for Medical SciencesScreening gap page
Lung Screening Atlas: CMS Hospital Service Area File 2025 and the AHRQ Compendium of U.S. Health Systems, 2023.
Other Arkansas counties
- Pulaski County14,400 missing
- Benton County8,800 missing
- Washington County7,700 missing
- Sebastian County5,600 missing
- Saline County5,300 missing
- Garland County5,100 missing
- Craighead County4,100 missing
- White County3,800 missing
Methodology
How we estimate the gap
A modeled estimate from public data only. It is not a count of patients and contains no patient information.
missing = adults 50 to 80 × county smoking rate × national eligibility factor × (1 − state screening rate)
- Adults 50 to 80: U.S. Census Bureau, Population Estimates, Vintage 2025
- Smoking: CDC PLACES 2025 release (Kentucky and Pennsylvania: 2024 release)
- Eligibility: USPSTF 2021 criteria, scaled to about 14.5 million eligible adults nationally
- Screening rates: American Lung Association, State of Lung Cancer 2025
- Who is missing: Census population estimates (age) and American Community Survey 2020 to 2024 (language)
- Screening activity: CMS Medicare fee-for-service claims for low-dose CT (CPT 71271), 2024, by provider location
- Lung cancer cases and deaths: National Cancer Institute and CDC, State Cancer Profiles (incidence 2019 to 2023, deaths 2020 to 2024)
- Smoking history: University of Minnesota National Lung Cancer Screening Estimates (Haynes 2026)
Estimates under 50 are shown as "fewer than 50"; others are rounded. Full methodology
Many of them are already your patients.
Oatmeal Health helps health systems and community health centers find, navigate, and screen the people who qualify, alongside the care teams you already have.
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A printable PDF with the local estimate, how it compares, who is missing, the local screening network, and our full methodology.
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