Increasing Access to Supportive Cancer Care for Workers, Families, and Caregivers
December 2nd, 2024
Cancer affects nearly 1 in 2 individuals in their lifetime, with 41% of Americans developing cancer in their lifetime and many more becoming primary caregivers to a loved one with cancer. Aside from the devastating personal impact of a cancer diagnosis, cancer negatively affects the workplace as well:
- 45% of people diagnosed with cancer in the U.S. are of working age (between the ages of 20 and 64).
- 42% of cancer patients report their condition reducing their productivity or interfering with physical and mental tasks at work.
- 63% of cancer patients report making changes in their jobs or career, such as taking extended time off, working part-time, or declining a promotion.
- Only 54% of working-age cancer survivors are employed full-time.
The impact of diminished productivity and lost work time for employees with cancer and their caregivers are so significant that Johns Hopkins estimates these indirect costs ($139 billion) exceed the direct medical costs of cancer itself nationwide ($125 billion) annually.
With cancer consistently ranking as a top cost concern for organizations, purchasers are seeking better cancer solutions that ensure consistent access to high quality holistic cancer care for their employees.
Supportive Cancer Care Improves Patient Care, Lowers Costs
Cancer care that is “supportive” is evidence-based and focused on meeting the whole-person needs of patients and caregivers pertaining to cancer. Supportive care meets the clinical, physical, emotional, social, and spiritual needs of patients and caregivers, with consideration for their economic and environmental circumstances. It includes a variety of support services beyond the usual, clinically-oriented approach to cancer treatment.
Purchasers that invest in providing their employees early access to supportive care following a cancer diagnosis can expect:
- Improved patient quality of life and caregiver experience
- Reduced cancer treatment side effects
- Improved medical outcomes
- Greater workforce retention and attendance (among cancer patients / caregivers)
- Decreased costs associated with cancer treatment (due to shorter hospital stays, fewer readmissions, and lowered medical costs)
Purchasers have an opportunity to tackle their high cancer costs while providing a better care experience for employees and dependents over the usual model of cancer treatment. To learn more about the business case for purchasers increasing access to supportive cancer care for workers, families, and caregivers, read our latest issue brief.
Purchaser Business Group on Health Approved for a PCORI Engagement Award to Support Maternal Health and Birth Equity
September 4th, 2024
Oakland, CA – The Purchaser Business Group on Health (PBGH) has been approved for a $100,000 funding award through the Eugene Washington PCORI Engagement Award Program, an initiative of the Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute (PCORI). The funds will support a national Maternal Health and Birth Equity Summit in Denver, Colorado, on September 18, 2024.
This summit will bring together employers, public purchasers, providers, plans, patients and government agencies to discuss strategies to address maternal morbidity and mortality, eliminate disparities and improve birth outcomes, including the important role of patient-centered comparative clinical effectiveness research (CER) in achieving these goals. In addition to highlighting opportunities to improve comprehensive maternity care in the U.S. through multistakeholder collaborations, the event’s agenda will also feature powerful stories of patients’ lived experience and innovations care delivery, benefit design, measurement and policy.
“For the last two years, PBGH’s employer and public purchaser members have prioritized actions to advance high-quality, affordable and equitable health care for mothers and babies, including the publication of shared standards, a quality measure set and common purchasing agreement,” said Randa Deaton, Vice President, Purchaser Engagement for PBGH. “As a next step, we are thrilled to have PCORI’s support for a convening to engage all stakeholders in discussing collaborative strategies and the role of patient-centered CER in addressing maternal health and birth equity.”
The Maternal Health and Birth Equity Summit is part of a portfolio of projects that PCORI has funded to help develop a community of patients, caregivers, clinicians and other stakeholders who are better equipped to engage as partners in all phases of patient-centered comparative CER and to disseminate PCORI-funded study results. Through its Engagement Award Program, PCORI is creating an expansive network of individuals, communities and organizations who are able to leverage their lived experience and expertise to influence research to be more patient-centered, relevant and useful.
According to Greg Martin, PCORI’s Chief of Engagement, Dissemination and Implementation, “This project was selected for Engagement Award funding because it aims to bring together patients and other stakeholders to explore critical issues related to patient-centered comparative clinical effectiveness research. We look forward to working with the Purchaser Business Group on Health throughout the course of their 12- month project.”
The Maternal Health and Birth Equity Summit and other projects approved for funding through the PCORI Engagement Award Program were selected as part of a highly competitive review process in which applications were assessed for their ability to meet PCORI’s engagement goals and objectives, as well as program criteria. For more information about PCORI’s funding to support engagement efforts, visit http://www.pcori.org/content/eugene-washington-pcori-engagement-awards/.
Stakeholders interested in attending the PBGH Maternal Health and Birth Equity Summit can learn more at https://www.pbgh.org/event/pbgh-maternal-health-birth-equity-summit/.
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About Purchaser Business Group on Health
PBGH is a nonprofit coalition representing 40 private employers and public entities across the U.S. that collectively spend $350 billion annually purchasing health care services for more than 21 million Americans and their families. In partnership with its members, PBGH initiatives are designed to test innovative operational programs and scale successful approaches that lower health care costs and increase quality across the U.S.