Missing Millions · 2026 estimate
Hoke County, North Carolina is missing 2,000 lung cancer screenings.
About 1 in 8 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 Hoke 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 by 5 percentage points would mean about 120 more people screened each year.
Illustrative estimate based on the county's estimated eligible population.
Who is missing
Age
59% are ages 50 to 64
Of adults ages 50 to 80 here, 59% are 50 to 64 and 41% are 65 to 80. Younger adults are often still working and outside Medicare.
Smoking history
36% quit smoking
Of adults here who likely qualify, 36% 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
5% limited English
5% of adults here speak English less than very well, most often Spanish.
Screening today
0 Medicare scans
No low-dose CT screening scans were billed to Medicare fee-for-service by providers based in Hoke County in 2024, so residents likely travel elsewhere to be screened. 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 Hoke County
Each year, on average. Screening finds lung cancer early, when it is most treatable.
Diagnosed
39 a year
New lung and bronchus cancers, 2019 to 2023 average.
Found late
56% at a late stage
About 22 a year are found after the cancer has spread, when it is hardest to treat.
Deaths
21 a year
Lung cancer deaths, 2020 to 2024 average.
Death rate
44.4 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 Hoke County
Health systems whose patients come from Hoke County, based on where their Medicare inpatients live. Each page shows the system's full service area, lung cancer data and screening today.
- Cape Fear Valley Health SystemScreening gap page
- FirstHealth of the CarolinasScreening gap page
Lung Screening Atlas: CMS Hospital Service Area File 2025 and the AHRQ Compendium of U.S. Health Systems, 2023.
Other North Carolina counties
- Mecklenburg County28,800 missing
- Wake County28,100 missing
- Guilford County18,700 missing
- Forsyth County14,200 missing
- Cumberland County10,900 missing
- Buncombe County10,100 missing
- Gaston County10,000 missing
- Johnston County9,200 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.
Get the free Hoke County report
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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