Color Health Survey Uncovers Gap Between Rising Cancer Rates and Employers' Cancer Care Benefits

Younger Employees Face Increasing Cancer Risks, but HR Leaders Lack Comprehensive Resources

BURLINGAME, Calif., Feb. 4, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- Color Health today announced findings from its second annual survey, conducted by The Harris Poll. The survey explores how benefits leaders navigate decision-making regarding cancer program benefits, including their current offerings, perceived effectiveness, and strategies for managing costs. Details are available in Color's Employer Insights Report 2025: The State of Cancer.

Over 2 million Americans will be diagnosed with cancer this year according to the American Cancer Society's 2025 Cancer Facts & Figures report. Rising incidence among working-aged individuals could have a significant impact on the workplace—and U.S. businesses as a whole—especially as healthcare costs are projected to jump by eight percent this year, the highest rate in a decade.

The survey revealed that employers' cancer programs remain largely focused on treatment and management, despite benefits leaders recognizing the need for a more comprehensive approach to cancer care. Leaders emphasized the importance of resources beyond what is provided through their health plans, particularly for prevention, early detection, and post-treatment support.

In 2023, 88% of benefits leaders advocated for greater investment in prevention and early detection initiatives, a sentiment that persisted in 2024. In practice, though, 82% of benefits leaders reported spending significantly more on cancer treatment and management programs in 2023—a number that remained almost unchanged (81%) in 2024. While 9 in 10 benefits leaders (91%) agreed that organizations should prioritize early detection and survivorship support alongside active cancer management, fewer than half (43%) have offered comprehensive cancer benefits as a strategy for reducing costs.

Additional key findings include:

• About three in four benefits leaders feel the need to expand their cancer offerings beyond what's currently provided through their health plans (75%) or primary care providers (72%)—but only about 1 in 4 do, typically focusing on point solutions like survivorship support (27%) or genetic testing (24%) rather than comprehensive programs.
• Benefits leaders identified the most critical cancer care benefits as: cancer screening and early detection (73%), treatment center networks and center of excellence (CoE) programs (67%), and cancer risk assessments (66%).
• There has been no improvement in benefits leaders' perception of cancer screening management by their health plan. In 2023 and 2024, nearly 3 in 4 (72%) agreed their health plan is not getting enough employees screened for cancer.
• Most benefits leaders agree that the best ways to reduce cancer costs are through cancer prevention and screening (56%) and comprehensive benefits programs (52%) that span the full cancer journey.
• Costs aside, benefits leaders cited support for employees' mental and emotional health as their top concern – but only half (54%) offer enhanced mental health and emotional support services for cancer patients and survivors.
• 93% of benefits leaders agree that their organization should invest more in supporting cancer survivors as they transition from treatment back to health – but only 1 in 3 (33%) offered dedicated cancer survivorship programs in 2024.

"As cancer rates climb among working-age individuals, employers are recognizing cancer as an increasingly common concern in their employees' lives, not to mention for their business," said Josh Sturm, Chief Revenue Officer at Color Health. "Benefits leaders need help bridging the gap between awareness and implementation of comprehensive cancer programs. At Color, we are 100% focused on cancer and have built the only Virtual Cancer Clinic, which goes well beyond care navigation with an in-house medical group that cares for everyone on your team – in every state of the country."

To read the entirety of Color's report, visit here.

About Color Health
Color Health is changing the way patients access cancer care through a first-of-its-kind, vertically integrated, and fully owned Virtual Cancer Clinic. Powered by a 50-state licensed team of cancer-focused clinical experts, Color provides proactive, evidence-based care that is accessible to anyone, anytime, and at every step of the cancer journey. We partner with employers, health plans, unions, and government agencies to improve accessibility of early interventions, timely diagnosis, oncology care management, and survivorship care. By enabling timely, risk-based interventions at every step of the cancer journey, Color enables earlier detection, better treatment outcomes, successful transitions back to health, and a lower cost of care for every patient. Clients have seen up to 77% increase in screening adherence rates and 3x lower costs after working with Color. Connect with Color on Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook and www.color.com.

Press Contact
Kayli Watson
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Survey Methodology:
The research was conducted online in the United States by The Harris Poll on behalf of Color Health among 253 HR decision makers employed at companies with 500 or more employees that offer cancer benefits. The survey was conducted November 26th through December 12th, 2024. 

Data are weighted where necessary by number of employees in the company.  Respondents for this survey were selected from among those who have agreed to participate in our surveys.  

The sampling precision of Harris online polls is measured by using a Bayesian credible interval.  For this study, the sample data is accurate to within ± 6.5 percentage points using a 95% confidence level.  This credible interval will be wider among subsets of the surveyed population of interest. 

All sample surveys and polls, whether or not they use probability sampling, are subject to other multiple sources of error which are most often not possible to quantify or estimate, including, but not limited to coverage error, error associated with nonresponse, error associated with question wording and response options, and post-survey weighting and adjustments.

SOURCE Color Health