(a) The General Assembly finds that:
(1)
(A) In 2015, colorectal cancer was the second leading cause of cancer death in Arkansas.
(B) An estimated one thousand five hundred eighty-two (1,582) new cases of colorectal cancer were diagnosed in Arkansas during 2015.
(C) An estimated one thousand three hundred seventy (1,370) new cases of colorectal cancer will be diagnosed in Arkansas during 2018.
(D) An estimated six hundred (600) Arkansans will have colorectal cancer listed as the cause of death in 2018.
(E) Arkansas presently has higher incidences of colorectal cancer and higher rates of death resulting from colorectal cancer than the national average.
(F) A 2015 cancer surveillance study published in the Journal of Cancer Epidemiology, Biomarkers, and Prevention by R.L. Siegel et al. indicates that the higher rates of colorectal cancer are experienced in the following seventeen (17) counties:
(i) Randolph;
(ii) Clay;
(iii) Mississippi;
(iv) Poinsett;
(v) Woodruff;
(vi) Cross;
(vii) Crittenden;
(viii) Lee;
(ix) Monroe;
(x) Arkansas;
(xi) Phillips;
(xii) Desha;
(xiii) Chicot;
(xiv) Drew;
(xv) Jefferson;
(xvi) Dallas; and
(xvii) Jackson;
(2)
(A) Screening for colorectal cancer may identify the precursors of cancer before the disease begins and the precursors may be removed, thus preventing the emergence of most colorectal cancer.
(B) Currently, only sixty-five percent (65%) of Arkansans who are at risk for colorectal cancer or who are above fifty (50) years of age have been screened.
(C) On April 19, 2016, Governor Asa Hutchinson signed the “80% by 2018” pledge dedicating his commitment to increase colorectal cancer screenings to eighty percent (80%) by 2018.
(D) Arkansas presently ranks forty-sixth in the nation for colorectal screenings among individuals who are fifty (50) years of age or older; and
(3) The Colorectal Cancer Control Demonstration Project created in the Colorectal Cancer Act of 2005, Acts 2005, No. 2236 [repealed], produced findings indicating that:
(A)
(i) Statewide only fifty percent (50%) of adults over fifty (50) years of age have received colorectal cancer screening within the recommended time interval and thirty-five percent (35%) have never been screened.
(ii) Screening rates are twenty-five percent (25%) lower in underserved areas of the state where healthcare services, health insurance coverage, educational attainment, and household income are limited;
(B)
(i) Forty percent (40%) of Arkansans who should be screened for colorectal cancer have never received physician advice to be screened.
(ii) An individual in an underserved area of the state is less likely to receive appropriate advice about effective screening methods than an individual in a better-served area of the state;
(C)
(i) Fewer than forty percent (40%) of Arkansas citizens know that periodic screening for colorectal cancer should start at fifty (50) years of age.
(ii) Fifty-six percent (56%) of Arkansas citizens rate themselves as being at low risk for colorectal cancer.
(iii) Forty-two percent (42%) of Arkansas citizens identify cost as a significant barrier to screening; and
(D)
(i) Eighty-one percent (81%) of low-income patients enrolled in the Colorectal Cancer Control Demonstration Project successfully completed colorectal screening.
(ii) A statewide screening program for underserved individuals could reduce colorectal cancer incidence among screened individuals by thirty-two percent (32%), reduce five-year mortality risk by twenty-five percent (25%), and reduce colorectal cancer treatment costs by fifty-four percent (54%).
(b) This subchapter is intended to reduce the physical and economic burden of colorectal cancer in Arkansas.