Tarrant County has been awarded a $50,000 grant to offer free colorectal screenings to low-income residents, The Star-Telegram reports.
The American Cancer Society awarded the money to the North Texas Area Community Health Center to help reach its goal of getting 80 percent of American adults older than 50 screened for colon and rectal cancer, the third-most common form of cancer.
The grant allows the clinic to charge just $11 for a screening, which typically goes for about $1,500 without insurance. The patient can perform the fecal ummunochemical test at home and send the card to an outside clinic, which analyzes whether there is blood or chemicals in the stool. If positive, the clinic then performs a colonscopy.
