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90 million Americans can now screen for colorectal cancer with a blood draw. 🩸
This is the access story nobody is talking about enough.
According to a September 1 announcement via Business Wire, Carelon Healthcare Services will cover Guardant Health’s Shield blood test for colorectal cancer screening, effective November 15. Carelon is one of the largest specialty benefits managers in the country, providing medical benefit management to Blue Cross Blue Shield plans across 26 states.
That single policy decision pushes total covered lives for Shield to approximately 90 million people, representing 75% of all eligible patients for CRC screening in the United States.
Let that sink in. Three out of four eligible Americans can now access this test.
🔹 Shield is the first FDA-approved blood test for primary colorectal cancer screening in average-risk adults age 45 and older
🔹 It detects CRC with just a blood draw during a routine doctor’s visit, no colonoscopy prep required
🔹 More than 200,000 tests have been performed in real-world settings
🔹 Shield has demonstrated over 90% screening adherence across practice and health system settings
🔹 It is recommended in both American Cancer Society and NCCN guidelines
Here is why this matters beyond the headline.
Colorectal cancer is the leading cause of cancer death for adults under 50. Rates are rising in younger adults. Yet the single biggest barrier to catching it early has always been the same: the test itself. People skip colonoscopies. They skip prep. They delay. They avoid.
A blood draw removes that friction entirely.
💡 The Screening Access Framework I think about every day:
1. Can the patient do it without taking a day off work? Shield: yes.
2. Does it require a specialist referral or separate facility? Shield: no.
3. Does insurance actually cover it? Now, for 75% of eligible Americans: yes.
4. Is it in guidelines? ACS and NCCN both say yes.
5. Does it actually drive adherence? Over 90% completion rate says yes.
Save this framework. If you are evaluating any screening solution for your health system or patient population, run it through these five questions first.
At Oatmeal Health, we think about access friction every single day. We build AI-powered lung cancer screening programs for underserved communities because the same dynamic applies: the best test in the world means nothing if the patient never shows up. Lower the friction, and you change outcomes.
What Guardant and Carelon just did for colorectal cancer is exactly the right model. Coverage without access is a press release. Coverage with a frictionless test is a life saved.
The fight is never just about the science. It is about getting the science to the people who need it most.
👉 Follow Jonathan Govette, CEO of Oatmeal Health, for daily healthcare insights on LinkedIn. Deeper dives in The Oatmeal Bite on Substack: https://news.oatmealhealth.com
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Author:
CEO/Co-Founder @ Oatmeal Health | AI Lung Cancer Screening | Almost Became a Doctor | Engineer | Follow to Share What I’ve Learned Along the Way
I help patients get the care they need earlier, preventing late-stage cancer.
That’s been the throughline across three companies and almost 20 years in healthcare. At ReferralMD, we fixed broken referral networks so patients didn’t fall through the cracks. At Oatmeal Health, it’s lung cancer: building the diagnostic and screening infrastructure so the 85% of cases caught too late get caught early instead.
Today as CEO of Oatmeal Health, I lead a team embedding AI into radiology workflows to turn routine lung CT scans into reimbursable cancer risk assessments. We partner with FQHCs to reach underserved communities, and with health systems and payers to make early detection economically sustainable. Think HeartFlow or Cleerly, but for lungs.
Between companies, I advised at Techstars and Plug and Play, mentoring founders building in digital health. That experience shaped how I think about what separates companies that ship from companies that stall: distribution, reimbursement, and clinical trust, not just technology.
I’m a CancerX alumnus, a 3x healthcare founder, and someone who believes the biggest problems in cancer aren’t scientific. They’re operational.
We’re hiring mission-driven builders at Oatmeal Health. If you want to work on something that matters, reach out.
When I’m not working, I’m traveling, mentoring, and keeping up with one very energetic husky. 🐾
Substack – The Oatmeal Bite:
Millions of patients get less care because of who they are, where they live, or how they look. I’m fighting to change that. CEO @OatmealHealth, a startup built for the underserved. The Oatmeal Bite: intel for clinicians, investors, and advocates.
Jonathan Govette
CEO of Oatmeal Health
Substack:
https://oatmealhealthjonathangovette.substack.com/
