The diagnosis wasn’t something David Baird – or anyone else – ever
expected to hear. The president and CEO of Insurance Trust and Equinox
had a molar removed, and the socket wasn’t healing well. And at the
follow-up appointment to check on his healing, the news got even worse.
“Sitting there that day in my oral surgeon’s office and being told I had
cancer is just something I never expected to hear,” said Baird, who
spent 12 days in the hospital and underwent 30 radiation treatments.
“It takes a tremendous emotional toll on a family,” said Baird in a new
video from Colonial Life. “The Colonial Life policy that I own was a
real saving benefit for us.”
Colonial Life has more than 50 years of experience providing cancer
insurance and was one of the first providers of this type of coverage.
In 2013 alone, Colonial Life paid nearly $100 million in claims to
17,000 individuals with cancer. In addition, 200,000 individuals
received nearly $25 million in wellness benefits last year from Colonial
Life for screenings to help detect cancer.
Colonial Life’s cancer insurance plan helps provide financial protection
from the costs associated with cancer diagnosis, treatment and recovery.
The coverage includes more than 30 benefits such as:
-
Family care benefit. Pays a daily amount when a covered
dependent child receives inpatient or outpatient cancer treatment.
Plans cover individuals, spouses, one-parent and two-parent families.
-
Wellness/health screenings. Employers have the option to choose
between two benefits that pay for tests and screenings that encourage
early detection of cancer.
-
Hospital confinement. Individuals can choose different levels
of coverage that pay a benefit for hospital stays of various durations.
-
Cancer treatment. Pays benefits for surgery, anesthesia,
radiation, chemotherapy, anti-nausea medication, surgical procedures,
private full-time nursing services, experimental treatments,
reconstructive surgery, prostheses, bone marrow donor screening and
other treatments for cancer.
-
Transportation and lodging benefits. Pays a benefit for
transportation to treatment and lodging for the covered individual and
a companion.
-
Home health care services and hospice care. Pays a benefit for
physical therapy, speech therapy and occupational therapy, appliances
and durable medical equipment, plus a $15,000 maximum lifetime benefit
for hospice care.
-
Cancer vaccine. Pays a benefit for a vaccine for cancer
prevention.
-
Fertility services. Pays for egg extraction or harvesting and
sperm collection and storage for covered policyholders diagnosed with
cancer.
Deb Rasmussen, vice president of voluntary benefits claims at Colonial
Life, said fulfilling insurance claims is just one piece of what
Colonial Life offers.
“Paying claims quickly and accurately is important, but so is
demonstrating the care and compassion we’re known for,” Rasmussen said.
“I think it’s our people who make the difference. They really care about
our customers.”
Baird’s story underscores the importance of additional insurance
coverage that can help pay for unexpected costs not covered by
traditional health insurance. Baird’s cancer policy covered travel to
and from treatment — including tolls and gas — overnight stays for his
wife and meals.
Research from the American Cancer Society finds nearly 44 percent of men
and 38 percent of women will develop some sort of cancer during their
lifetimes. More than 40 percent of those will experience a significant
or catastrophic financial burden.1 Cancer patients are more
than two times more likely to go bankrupt than people without cancer.2
Baird’s story is a happy one.
“I'm happy to say I'm cancer-free today and I thank God every day for my
Colonial Life policy,” Baird said.
1 “The Financial Toxicity of Cancer Treatment: A Pilot Study
Assessing Out-of-Pocket Expenses and the Insured Cancer Patient’s
Experience,” Economics of Oncology Practice, Vol. 18, o. 4, 2013.
2
“Washington State Cancer Patients Found to be at Greater Risk for
Bankruptcy than People Without a Cancer Diagnosis,” Health Affairs, May
21, 2013.
About Colonial Life
Colonial Life & Accident Insurance Company is a market leader in
providing financial protection benefits through the workplace, including
disability, life, accident, cancer, critical illness and supplemental
health insurance. The company’s benefit services and education,
innovative enrollment technology and personal service support more than
80,000 businesses and organizations, representing more than 3 million of
America’s workers and their families. For more information visit www.coloniallife.com
or connect with the company at www.facebook.com/coloniallifebenefits,
www.twitter.com/coloniallife
and www.linkedin.com/company/colonial-life.
©2008 Colonial Life & Accident Insurance Company
Copyright Business Wire 2014