The Alberta Teachers’ Retirement Fund Board will transfer all of its funds to the Alberta Investment Management Corp., according to the province’s latest budget. The ATRF board, which administers pensions for all teachers in Alberta school jurisdictions and charter schools, said in a press release it was only made aware of the change when the budget was released […]
When it comes to health-care spending in Canada, there isn’t a lot of variance between provinces, according to Joe Farago, executive director of private payers and investment at Innovative Medicines Canada. In a session at Benefits Canada’s 2019 Halifax Benefits Summit on Sept. 24, he said prescription drugs’ percentage of the total health-care budget has been fairly consistent, at 15 […]
The Ontario government has launched a consultation on adopting benefits pooling for broader public sector employees. In previous discussions, both public sector employers and bargaining agents expressed interest in looking at centralized benefits pooling, according to a news release. The government said public sector compensation represents about half of all government spending, at a total […]
The Health Association of Nova Scotia, which has a number of different employers in its benefits plan, cites rheumatoid arthritis medications as its top drugs in terms of cost. “Chronic disease, in terms of inflammatory disease — not just for rheumatoid, but for Crohn’s disease as well — those are what we’re seeing from a […]
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 […]
As plan sponsors continue to look for ways to control drug plan spending, a new study from the University of British Columbia shows that switching from an open to a closed formulary can save big dollars. The study, published this month in the Canadian Medical Association Journal Open, analyzed what happened when the B.C. Hospital […]
On Friday, the federal government announced the final amendments to the Patented Medicine Prices Review Board regulations, estimating the reforms will save Canadians about $13 billion in the next decade and lay the foundation for national pharmacare. The amendments, which were put forward by the government in a consultation in May 2017, include an update […]
Plan sponsors can expect to see a three to five per cent increase in prescription drug claims in 2019, according to Buck’s annual Canadian health-care trend survey. However, the survey noted, since insurance providers also add a market inflation factor, the projected increase is actually 10.99 per cent, down from 12.45 per cent in 2018. Based […]
Plan sponsors are increasingly adopting plan design tools to manage their drug plan costs, according to Telus Health’s annual drug trends report. It found private plan drug costs have grown 0.3 per cent per year on average for the past 10 years, made up of an average 2.1 per cent annual decrease in the cost […]
If the Canada-United States-Mexico trade agreement goes through it could have a significant impact on the cost of private drug plans. Currently on hold until members of Parliament return to Ottawa after the summer break, the agreement as written would extend the data protection term for biologic drugs to 10 years from the current eight. If […]