A universal pharmacare program could represent savings of $4.2 billion, according to a new report published by the parliamentary budget officer. The report, which followed a request by the House of Commons’ standing committee on health, estimated the level of savings that would result from a national program covering drugs included on Quebec’s public formulary. Of […]
Quebecers now have more details about the costs of their drugs when they fill a prescription at a pharmacy. As of Friday, new provincial rules require invoices from pharmacies to itemize the price of the drug itself, the wholesaler’s margin and the pharmacist’s fee. The latter is the only cost that varies between pharmacies in Quebec for […]
Amidst all of the innovation that’s occurring in the drug industry, pharmacists have a role to play in helping employers navigate the changes, a speaker told participants at the Healthy Outcomes conference in June. “We can expect new medications to come onto the market in the next few years,” said Mark Rolnick, vice-president of payor […]
During the Healthy Outcomes conference in June, participants discussed ways to better understand the impact of drug plan offerings on employee health. Four groups of conference participants — moderated by Joe Farago, executive director of health-care innovation at Innovative Medicines Canada; Kirsten Garces, senior manager for value and access at Amgen Canada Inc.; Carmen Hogan, […]
While flexible benefits plans are a clear trend among Canadian employers, the range of choices can be daunting for employees. So how much choice is too much? That was a question Pitney Bowes Inc. considered when it redesigned its benefits plan in 2015. As part of the changes, the company trimmed its menu of mix-and-match […]
Ontario is joining Alberta and New Brunswick in making abortion pill Mifegymiso available at no cost to the public. The abortion pill first became available in Canada in January 2017 at a cost of about $300. This spring, the common drug review recommended public drug coverage for Mifegymiso. “We continue to make important progress helping women across […]
The Reformulary Group has introduced an early warning system that aims to help plan administrators and employers monitor and prepare for new-high cost drugs. The system evaluates new high-cost prescription drugs entering the marketplace and forecasts the expected impact of those drugs to insurance carriers, third-party administrators and employers. Read: Public drug plans’ medication spending […]
The City of Toronto’s auditor general is raising yet more concerns about benefits fraud after discovering employees may have shopped around for doctors to get prescriptions for excessive amounts of erectile dysfunction drugs. In an update this month to her October 2016 report on potentially excessive and unusual drug claims by employees to the city’s […]
While the majority of employees continue to be satisfied with their health benefits plan, the extent to which they find it meets their needs has declined over the years, according to the 2017 Sanofi Canada health-care survey. The latest survey, released today, found 53 per cent of plan members reported their health benefits plan meets […]
Both plan sponsors and plan members are expressing an interest in personalized medicine that offers a targeted approach to prescribing based on patients’ genetic makeup, according to the 2017 Sanofi Canada health-care survey. These tests are becoming more accessible and more affordable, said Paula Allen, vice-president of research and integrative solutions at Morneau Shepell Ltd. […]