Why Design a Cancer Care Benefit for Employees Who Don’t Have Cancer?
1. A strong, comprehensive cancer care program should serve all members of an employer’s population, including those who have not been diagnosed with cancer and want to do everything they can to proactively avoid a late-stage diagnosis.
2. Why employers should help their employees understand the components of early detection and make it easy for them to pursue necessary screening.
3. How intelligent, human-centered technology can be used to help change behaviors around screening by regularly activating employees with proactive nudges, prompts, and trusted clinical guidance about the right screening and testing for their unique needs.
Randy K. Hawkins, M.D., FACHE, Chief Medical Officer, Transcarent
Almost everything about cancer is overwhelming. With cancer costs now being identified as the top cost driver for employer health plans1, these lifesaving benefits are more important than ever.
With this in mind – what would you think if I said employers should offer “always on” cancer care benefits to every single employee and encourage all employees to use it, regardless if they've been diagnosed with cancer or not?
If you understand the power of early detection and screening, you may think it’s a brilliant suggestion and realize how it could reduce the costs of care. A strong, comprehensive cancer care program should serve all members of an employer’s population, including those who have not been diagnosed with cancer and want to do everything they can to proactively avoid a late-stage diagnosis. When people have easy access to high-quality and convenient early detection tools and screening tests, they are usually more motivated to stay up to date with their provider’s recommendations. This is important because when cancer can be identified earlier, better outcomes and lower costs are usually the results.
I’m likely reiterating what you already know, early detection of cancer helps save lives2. However, benefit leaders tell me it’s hard to process all the new innovation around cancer, difficult to know who to trust, and overwhelming to understand what information to act on as a benefits decision maker. Encouraging people to pursue early detection screening often requires a change in behavior and most HR leaders understand that changing behaviors is challenging; our own research even shows this to be true.
Recently, we undertook a first of its kind consumer experience survey about cancer care, touching on each transition from screening through survivorship. Sixty-six percent (66%) of survey respondents with cancer said they were well-versed in cancer prevention recommendations prior to their diagnosis. However, 21% of the respondents who were not up to date on their screenings noted reasons like not having enough time, lack of knowledge about screening recommendations, too much going on in their lives, and fear of the procedure and/or results.
I’m here to help simplify this complexity and confusion, and break down how a comprehensive cancer care benefit with a strong early detection component can drive higher screening rates and increase the early identification of cancer, when it’s often easier to treat. Employers can play a role in setting their people up for a heathier future by helping their employees understand the components of early detection and make it easy for them to pursue necessary screening.
Educate
The first step is to help educate employees and make sure they are proactively connected to trusted information about recommended screenings, including timelines and risk factors. Your employees likely have a handful of widely recommended cancer screenings on their radar to understand and manage. Each screening test is specific to a certain kind of cancer (i.e. breast, cervical, lung, colorectal, prostate) and includes specific recommended screening ages and cadences.
Consider a genetic test
Genetic testing can be done proactively to understand if there is any inherited risk of developing cancer and often is pursued when someone discovers a significant family history of breast and/or colorectal cancer. A genetic test that indicates a higher risk of cancer can then be used to inform the employee’s screening cadence, typically leading providers to encourage earlier or more frequent screenings.
Know about new innovations
It’s important to know that there are additional types of tests available to help detect cancer in its earliest stages. Some employers choose to offer these innovative testing options to their employees in an effort to reduce the likelihood of late-stage cancers. As many well know, the pace of innovation in this space is swift. We encourage employers to continue to monitor the latest technologies and research with excitement and optimism, as we do.
Engage
As our research reinforces, changing behaviors and motivating people to follow through with recommended screenings and early detection tests can take a lot of effort and repetition. However, if your entire employee population is actively engaged in a comprehensive cancer care experience at the screening stage, they can be regularly activated with proactive nudges, prompts, and trusted guidance about the right screening and testing for their unique needs. Behavioral nudges can improve screening rates and recent third-party studies3 confirm this. At Transcarent, we developed our Cancer Care experience to engage Members at critical touchpoints throughout their journey. We understand our Members’ risk and our experience provides extensive screening and early detection support through intelligent reminders, in-app tracking, and targeted evidence-based content.
Multiple screening and testing options are available, so Members have access to the tools they need to engage in their care. We can also help find high-quality providers, assist in scheduling appointments, and provide access to our experienced care team for support, education, and guidance. Members are able to proceed with confidence with our compassionate Oncology Nurse Navigators by their side, helping to guide them through the screening process and next steps.
At Transcarent, we believe that any cancer benefit should ultimately drive towards one thing: saving lives. We built our comprehensive Cancer Care experience to prioritize earlier identification of the disease and engage people with compassion and expertise along every step of their journey – from screening through survivorship. We’re excited to work with employers who understand the value of designing a cancer care benefit for all their employees – to help save lives and ease the burden of cancer.
2 https://www.cancer.org/research/cancer-facts-statistics/cancer-prevention-early-detection.html
3 https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamainternalmedicine/article-abstract/2818196?resultClick=1
