Your employees have just gone through open enrollment. They’ve selected the plans and benefits that you’ve carefully chosen over the last year or even months.
Now what’s happening?
According to a recently published article on the connection between healthcare needs and financial stress… the answer might be: not enough.
In the 2022 Pulse Report: Current Market Impacts on Benefits Decisions explained by BenefitsPRO, more than a quarter of employees postponed wellness visits or a screening.
This should cause employers concern for all areas of health that are getting overlooked and ignored. Missed cancer screenings should be of particular concern.
Regular screenings can catch cancer early, especially when performed routinely. Missed cancer screenings mean cancer could develop and increase in stage. This becomes detrimental to the employee and raises the cost of treatment (which both the employee and employer feel).
For example, breast cancer caught at a late versus early stage can be very costly. For 24 months of treatment, stage 0 breast cancer costs about $71,909. Stage 4 costs about $182,655 (National Library of Medicine).
“The emotional damage caused by discovering cancer in a late stage is paralyzing for patients,” shares Amy Kerschbaum, Director of the Wheelhouse CancerAlly program. “The confining emotions such as fear and despair are so overwhelming that they become extremely hard to manage and cause tremendous stress to the patient and the entire family.”
Screening mammograms averaging $353/person can help find cancer in earlier stages. This is why employers investing in ensuring their employees attend them is a priority (JAMA Internal Medicine). Catching cancer early can help the employee not just have a better outcome, but can also impact the employee’s emotional health.
“On the other hand, the discovery of early-stage cancer does cause fear in the beginning,” Amy explains. “However, patients transition to a state of optimism once they understand that they have a good chance for a positive outcome from their cancer treatment.”
Screenings are often completely covered or the cost is supplemented by insurance. However, lack of education surrounding benefits can make this very confusing. An estimated 9.4 million cancer screenings in 2020 didn’t happen. The prevalence of COVID-19 was a factor in the missed screenings. The full repercussions of the pandemic are still being evaluated.
“Employers are already offering benefits that cover cancer screening in most cases, so why not take the next step and offer education about the importance of cancer screening and prevention?” asks Amy. “Employers can play a pivotal role in saving the lives of their employee population.”
Are your employees among that number of missed cancer screenings? Have they resumed attending their cancer screenings?
