Canada Life is introducing specialist cancer support from Perci Health for all its group critical illness (CI) members with immediate effect and no additional cost.
Members with a cancer diagnosis will be able to access a dedicated cancer nurse specialist for up to 12 months through video or phone appointments.
They will help the member navigate cancer treatment, facilitate conversations with specialists and coordinate contact with Perci Health oncology rehabilitation clinicians to support management of the long-term mental and physical side-effects.
The insurer is also offering up to three additional sessions with specialist cancer clinicians to support the patient’s rehabilitation and long-term health recovery.
This may include oncology-specialist physiotherapists, dieticians experienced in cancer care, psychological support, menopause expertise, and pain or neuropathy management.
Claims handlers will be able to signpost patients to the support service dedicated communications and training will be available to inform employer customers.
It is open to the possibility of extending the service to life or group income protection products should it be successful in CI.
Two thirds of CI claimants
Canada Life managing director Dan Crook told Health & Protection the insurer had been carefully examining where it could be most impactful and address real needs that employers and employees had.
“We know that cancer is incredibly emotive,” he said.
“Reports would suggest that it can be such an overwhelming experience, one of isolation and one where cancer patients may feel that it’s their condition being treated, it’s their tumour being treated rather than them being treated as a human being.
“And of course, it puts so much stress and pressure on the family, on the home, on the mental wellbeing of those individuals, so we felt that we wanted to do a little bit more.
“We know that an employee making a claim for group critical illness needs more than just a monetary payment; they don’t know where to go, and if we can be there to stand up for those people in those times of need, then that’s absolutely what we want to do,” he added.
The move should also support more than two thirds of claimants as cancer made up 68% of claims through Canada Life’s group critical illness product in 2025.
The most common being breast, testicular, and prostate cancers, while the average age of patients was just under 51.
Crook also noted that with much higher survival rates there were now more people likely to be living after cancer and so the insurer wanted to introduce something more specialist and focused on helping people through such a difficult time.
“Perci Health have identified that a patient dealing with cancer has on average, 24 unmet needs – all sorts of side effects around chronic fatigue, pain, nerve ending damage, impacts on fertility and early menopause,” he said.
“We wanted to make sure that as everybody was going through their own journey that we can be there to offer more support than we’ve been able to up to this point.”
Nurse support services
The nurse support will help with a range of factors and issues, including delivering explanations of diagnosis and treatment plans, helping preparation for hospital appointments, support management, treatment impacts and side effects.
They will also provide emotional support and help individuals with resilience for themselves and within their family life and should they require it, structured support in helping them recover or return to work.
“We believe that work is good for you, and if we can help people still be at work to some degree while going through such a difficult time in their lives, as long as it’s right for the individual and it helps that individual, then that’s great,” Crook continued.
“So any support that we can give, ensuring that the employer might know what the needs of the employee would be to be able to go to work and do whatever they can during that time we shouldn’t walk past.”
Extending to life and GIP
Crook also noted that Canada Life was considering the potential of extending the service to its group life and group income protection (GIP) products as well.
“We’ll review the quality of the service as we’re going through it now and if we feel at the right time that it can be extended, then within the usual caveats, we would look to offer the solution and help as many people as possible,” he said.
“We are aware, of course, that a number of our income protection claimants are also off with cancer.
“We focused on critical illness initially because it was such a high percentage of people that are claiming for that product line, but we would always review and if we thought it was appropriate that we would look to do that with the usual caveats,” he added.
‘First for UK CI market’
It is the second rollout for Perci Health this month after it’s cancer risk assessment and screening process was added to Westfield Field Health’s cash plan product.
Commenting on the Canada Life service, Perci Health CEO Kelly McCabe told Health & Protection: “Cancer remains one of the leading causes of critical illness claims, and with survival rates continuing to improve, more people are living longer after diagnosis and needing sustained support to recover well, return to work and rebuild their lives.
“The way critical illness policies support members affected by cancer must evolve to reflect this.
“Canada Life is leading the charge by going beyond generalist nurse support to offer a specialist cancer navigation service, combined with access to multidisciplinary rehabilitation and return-to-work support.
“This is a first for the UK critical illness market and a significant step forward in how we think about cancer care beyond treatment.
“At a time when many people still face gaps in NHS support, particularly after treatment ends, services like this will be the only way some policyholders can access the expert rehabilitation they need. It represents real, tangible value for members and a meaningful shift in how insurers can support better outcomes.”
