3 ways to help employees catch cancer sooner

February 12, 2024 5:30 AM

Patient receiving medical test with medical professional standing next to exam table

Cancer claims the lives of over 1,500 people per day and is now the top driver of healthcare costs for employers. Streamlining the screening process can help employees avoid late-stage diagnoses, improving both survival outcomes and a business's bottom line.

A new report from healthcare platform Color Health shows that although 80% of employers are concerned by rising cancer costs and 96% of benefits leaders agree early detection is the best solution, the majority of focus is devoted to post-diagnosis treatment, rather than evidence-based screenings.

According to the report, three out of four employers say they are placing more emphasis on screening, early detection and risk prevention efforts, but they are going to have to go beyond their current benefits setup: Only a quarter believe their current health plans meet the screening needs of their workforce, and three-quarters say employees are not being adequately screened by their primary care provider. Leaders report that 40% of employees are not compliant with screenings in general, and for the most deadly forms of cancer — lung and bronchus — the American Lung Association reports that only 6% of people eligible get screened.

"The assumption [has been that] if we cover mammograms and colonoscopies and lung CTs, then people will actually get them, and that's turned out to be false," says Othman Laraki, Color Health's CEO. "The big driver for that is that for non-acute care services, availability is not the same thing as access."

Relying on third party administrators (TPAs) and primary care providers is not the answer to improving screening participation, says Laraki. Instead, there is much employers can do internally that lends to a more proactive approach.

"There are a lot of utilization management efforts once someone has been diagnosed, but at that point there isn't a lot of trust, and it is too late to really change the trajectory of the person's care," Laraki says. "The opportunities to invest far upstream and to provide holistic service applies to cancer, obviously, but also applies to cardiovascular health and a number of other areas."

Here are three steps leaders can take to improve the health outcomes of their workers and decrease healthcare spend.

Increase awareness and access

According to the report, approximately half of employers say their workforce does not know which screenings they need (47%), fear what may be discovered (46%) and struggle to find time to attend screening appointments (40%). By creating flexible work policies that give employees time to attend appointments, as well as promoting communication around screening participation, employers can ensure their population is informed and available to seek care.

"Highly socialize within a company or in a team the act of getting preventive care and getting your screenings done," Laraki says. "We've launched different programs at Color, and people have been very open to talking about their screenings and follow ups. The social expectation that people can and should be getting their screenings done in a timely manner is very powerful and very under-utilized as an opportunity."

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Get the business personally involved

The report found that only 17% of benefits leaders say they have a supplemental screening benefit on top of their health plan that offers a more personalized experience for employees, again going back to an overreliance on TPAs. While taking a more active role in managing an employee population's health can seem tricky, Laraki reminds employers that putting together the most impactful, accessible offerings is one of the most valuable things they can do for their workforce.

"Your TPA is in the coverage business, not in the access business," he says. "The main thing employers can do is bring in services in a way that is more accessible to people. Prevention and screening has always felt like an investment where [leaders] are worried about increasing costs, but if you wait for late-stage disease, you don't have a choice — you pay for it anyway and you haven't solved the problem."

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Track data

When screening options are only made available through a third party, gaining access to the data can be next to impossible, says Laraki. While 90% of employers say it is important to have access to employee screening compliance data, only 16% said they can see combined screening rates for the five types of cancer that lead to a quarter of cancer deaths.

"For many companies, the healthcare budget is the number one or number two cost," Laraki says. "As employers, we are the customer, it is our money, it's our employees' money, and the fact that we're not demanding insight into this huge black hole of spend is a huge part of the problem. You should be able to slice it by subset of demographics, for populations, different socioeconomic statuses, across genders, etc. You should be able to really gain an insight into what's driving the real cost there, but right now, it's this black box that there's no ability to take action against."