Employers with a cancer-care support strategy stand to make gains in productivity and retention. Such a strategy takes a coordinated approach and includes assistance navigating the public healthcare system, easily accessible information around cancer care, critical illness insurance, partial disability clauses and accommodations (such as flexible schedules) to ensure successful returns to work.
The case for a cancer-care support strategy steadily grows. First, cancer rates are climbing among younger Canadians in the prime of their careers. More than two in five cancer diagnoses are in the working-age population and 60 per cent of cancer survivors return to work after treatment, according to research cited in The plan sponsor’s guide to cancer, published by Benefits Canada in December 2024.
Many cancer patients struggle with the psychological fallout: a 2022 U.S. survey found that 56 per cent reported feeling unprepared for the mental health challenges brought on by treatment.
At the same time, advances in treatment have resulted in more Canadians living—and working—with cancer as a chronic condition. It used to be that someone got cancer, went on long-term disability (LTD) and “that was the last you ever saw of them,” said Chris Bonnett, Principal Consultant, H3 Consulting, during a recent podcast for Benefits Alliance Voice. Today, cancer “is affecting younger and younger adults [and] it’s really starting to impact productivity in the workplace.”
Advances in cancer treatment also increasingly impact health benefits plans. “[Treatment is] very expensive, increasingly on the drug side, because a lot of the pipeline work is aimed at specific, rare cancers that come with very high price tags,” said Bonnett.
Cancer drugs rank seventh on the top-10 list of drug categories by eligible amounts submitted to private drug plans, states the 2025 Drug Data Trends & National Benchmarks report by TELUS Health.
In the podcast, “Cancer in the Workplace,” Bonnett and Allan Smofsky, Principal Strategist, Smofsky Strategic Planning, outlined a step-by-step plan for employers, from prevention to treatment and return to work. Take 5 for Wellness captures six key components here.
1. Promote lifestyle changes
“Many cancers are preventable,” said Bonnett, including cervical, lung, stomach, liver and colorectal. While employees are likely aware of the connection between smoking and lung cancer, they may not realize that healthy eating, exercise and weight management also reduce the risk of cancer.
2. Include partial disability clauses
A typical LTD contract doesn’t factor in the partial disability status of many cancer survivors, noted Smofsky. A partial disability clause provides financial support for cancer-related items such as slightly impaired mobility, mental health issues, temporary cognition issues brought on by chemotherapy, or the side effects of drugs.
3. Support all aspects of well-being
Employees can struggle with physical, mental and financial health when they or a loved one, such a spouse or child, are diagnosed with cancer, said Bonnett. In addition to coverage for drugs, plan members would benefit from and value extended health benefits such as mental-health counselling, physiotherapy and occupational therapy. Facilitated access to financial counselling could also be hugely appreciated: the Canadian Cancer Society estimates cancer patients pay $33,000 out of pocket over their lifetime.
4. Offer critical illness insurance
To help employees pay for out-of-pocket costs, work with your advisor to offer and promote critical illness insurance. The premium for a group plan is reasonable and the flat payout amount of between $25,000 and $50,000—or sometimes more—means that employees may not need to dip into their savings to cover costs such as their copay for the medication (which can be thousands of dollars), extra childcare and counselling services.
5. Protect your benefits plan
Some drugs for rare cancers carry a price tag of $100,000 or more. “So, one thing HR professionals need to do, in concert with their benefit advisors and insurers, is figure out the pooling and drug risk-sharing mechanism so that their plans aren’t stung with these kinds of costs,” said Bonnett. Otherwise, smaller employers might experience difficulty recovering from even a single claim.
6. Proactively educate and guide
Resources for people diagnosed with cancer tend to exist in silos and the healthcare system can be extremely difficult to navigate, observed Smofsky. “There really needs to be some kind of coordinating resource that should be able to do this fairly easily, which just seamlessly points the individual in the [right] direction,” he said.
The private sector can fill this gap in coordination, thanks in large part to enhanced benefits offerings and new technologies. “Let’s bring in the insurer, let’s bring in the EAP, let’s bring in the virtual platform provider and anybody else that you know will touch our members when they have cancer,” said Smofsky. “Getting targeted information and the right resources to the right person at the right time, is key.”