Green Shield Canada is partnering with digital pharmacy PocketPills on a virtual pharmacy app for its group benefits plans. Plan members will be able to chat with a pharmacist, refill existing prescriptions through the app and have their medications delivered to their homes for free. The drugs come pre-sorted into packages by dosage and time, […]
Vancouver City Savings Credit Union has put its frontline staff on a rotation system and introduced a virtual health-care app to support them during the coronavirus pandemic. When the pandemic hit British Columbia, Vancity began to see a steep climb in unexplained absences, reaching as high as 140 a day. “Like many people across the […]
The Royal Bank of Canada is expanding its partnership with telemedicine platform Wello to give Canadian businesses and their employees access to virtual health care during the coronavirus pandemic. Through Wello’s platform, RBC’s plan sponsor clients and their employees will have access to health resources including prescription and medical referrals, consultations for chronic health conditions, mental-health […]
Over the last decade, the group benefits space has been all about digitizing documents and data, embracing a mobile-first mindset and urging plan sponsors and members to ditch paper and go online for a more customized experience. The next decade will build on all of that, pushing group benefits plans into the era of hyper-personalization, […]
Telus Communications Inc.’s director of pension and benefits talks about plan member choice, honouring diversity and local walks. Q. What top challenges do you face in your role? A. Providing personalized, meaningful benefits to our team members, while at the same time ensuring the sustainability of the program through prudent cost management — it can be a […]
With the coronavirus pandemic affecting many businesses, employers are considering their options for shifting their benefits plan spend. Usage rates for benefits such as dental and paramedical services, which generally have high uptake among plan members, are currently in decline, since non-essential business are shuttered for the foreseeable future and Canadians are staying at home. “Specifically in […]
The coronavirus pandemic has hit us all hard, and pensions and benefits are no exception. The pandemic has implications for out-of-country emergency travel insurance, disability benefits and even day-to-day health-care claims, since plan members aren’t able to access many of their usual practitioners and may be looking for virtual alternatives. From a pension standpoint, the recent […]
Walmart Canada has introduced a free virtual health-care platform for employees in response to the coronavirus. The service, through EQ Care, has been available to about 90,000 full, part time and temporary employees from the retailer’s stores and head offices since last week. It had started looking at virtual care options in the fall of 2019, but […]
MindBeacon is launching a new digital mental-health program, called Stronger Minds, to support all Canadians through heightened stresses related to the coronavirus pandemic. “We, as an organization, have been very committed to trying to make mental-health support accessible to Canadians,” says Claire Duboc, managing director of MindBeacon Group. “That’s been a reality, that many are […]
Trimac Transportation is partnering with Calgary-headquartered wellness app Headversity to provide mental-health and resilience training for its workers. Truckers have been experiencing elevated levels of stress since the federal government declared trucking an essential service in Canada during the coronavirus pandemic, according to the North American transportation company. “COVID-19 has impacted everybody,” said Kara Gillespie, vice-president of […]