Cancer Is Top Reason for Long-Term Disability: For the seventh consecutive
year, cancer remains the top reason that employees take long-term
disability.
More than 12 percent of long-term disability claims resulted from cancer
cases, according to Unum, a Chattanooga, Tennessee-based provider of group
disability insurance.
However, the return-to-work rates for cancer patients on short-term
disability has increased 77 percent from 2001 to 2005, Unum reports. Similarly,
the return-to-work rate for cancer patients on long-term disability has
increased 24 percent during the same period.
Employers can play a big part in supporting workers through a cancer
diagnosis and help them return to the workplace.
“The individual who is a cancer survivor does not want to be a hostage to the
disease,” said Kenneth Mitchell, Unum’s vice president of health and
productivity, in a release. “The employer can be the difference.”
The number of cancer survivors in the U.S. has increased fourfold in the last
30 years, and the American Cancer Society predicts the prevalence of cancer will
double by 2030, Mitchell said.
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