ASO plans – Benefits Canada.com

Back to basics on stop-loss insurance

mschmit — Fri, 16 Aug 2019 04:53:02 +0000

When an employee has a health issue requiring expensive treatment, the associated high-cost claims can be significant for their benefits plan sponsor. But it’s impossible to predict when a large claim will arise, so stop-loss insurance, which takes the claim off the employer’s shoulders, is one option to help protect against these unexpected costs. As […]

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The legal risks of drug plan design changes

mschmit — Fri, 10 May 2019 04:52:05 +0000

Drug plan design changes are often unavoidable, whether they’re due to a carrier modifying contracts across the board or an employer looking to manage ballooning costs. Generally, “plan sponsors are looking at programs like more managed formularies and, potentially, maximums,” says Suzanne Lepage, a private health plan strategist in Kitchener, Ont. “Changes driven at the […]

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How to predict benefits plan spending for January 2020

mschmit — Tue, 29 Jan 2019 04:30:22 +0000

Something interesting happened this month as we examined the 2018 experience of two different plan sponsors in two separate geographies with different demographics. The only similarity between the plans is they both have 80,000 or more individual claimants on their drug plan annually. At the same time last year, we completed a series of predictive analytics on […]

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A look at the benefits of hybrid health plans

mschmit — Tue, 04 Sep 2018 04:30:30 +0000

While the move to more defined contribution-style health benefits plans provides greater clarity and flexibility to plan sponsors, it would be natural to wonder whether or not the available options are limited to the two extremes alone. The continuum of benefits plan design includes fully insured plans, fully self-insured (administration services-only or ASO) plans and hybrid […]

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A look at how some ASO plan sponsors are impacting stop-loss premiums

mschmit — Tue, 28 Aug 2018 04:15:03 +0000

As September approaches, activity in the catastrophic stop-loss insurance market will start to heat up for self-insured plan sponsors. This is when the annual dance of plans obtaining their proposed premium for the coming year, and trying to find ways to mitigate the increase, hits a fever pitch. Imagine a province, without a single provincial insurer, […]

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Employers urged to prepare for Saskatchewan insurance tax

mschmit — Wed, 28 Jun 2017 12:30:18 +0000

Employers with staff in Saskatchewan will see their insurance premiums rise by six per cent this August due to a new tax introduced by the provincial government in its 2017/18 budget. The six per cent provincial sales tax will apply to all group benefits plans with life, accident and health insurance policies. “This new tax […]

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