On May 22, the 2019 Calgary Benefits Summit focused on how employers can make their organization its healthiest by starting with their benefits plans. Here’s what you missed! How a Blue Zone concept can benefit the workplace What can a small Alberta town of 70,000 people do when the provincial government’s response to, “We need […]
British Columbia is expanding its use of biosimilars, effective November 2019. The move is expected to create opportunities for new drug listings and increase current coverage for patients, according to a press release from the B.C. government. The first two drugs to come into immediate effect are Jardiance, a diabetes drug, and Taltz, an arthritis drug. It will change the game considerably, says Suzanne Lepage, a private […]
The National Football League and the NFL Players Association are putting more resources in place for players’ pain management and behavioural health through new union agreements. The two parties will be forming a joint pain management committee, with medical experts appointed by both the league and the union, according to a press release. The committee will […]
Medavie Blue Cross is launching a pharmacogenetic testing pilot project to help group benefits plan members find ideal medication and dosing amounts. The project uses GeneYouIn Inc.’s Pillcheck cheek-swab DNA test, analyzing patients’ genes to understand how their bodies might process certain medications. After the test, the swabs are destroyed for patient privacy. While the project will initially […]
Between 2000 and 2015, antidepressant drug consumption doubled in Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development countries. This is potentially a reflection of people’s growing willingness to admit they need help, the availability of therapies and general attitudes around mental-health issues. However, the consumption varies between countries, with Canada one of the top consumers. Nancy Tibbo, […]
Manulife is launching a preventative opioid management program, extending its Vitality program to group benefits plans and partnering with digital health company Akira Health. The opioid management program features a two-step system. The first ensures plan members who start opioid treatment do so with a short-term supply, while the second encourages using short-acting opioids at the outset. […]
Specialty medications and high-cost drugs for common conditions are driving up private plan drug spending, according to Express Scripts Canada’s annual drug trends report. The report found the rapid increases in drug spending for private plans over the last 20 years have started to slow. The average annual drug spending per plan member was up just 0.9 per cent […]
Canadian insurers expect health costs to rise by 11.55 per cent this year, according to a new report by Accompass Inc. The annual survey determines the anticipated year-over-year cost increase or decrease — or health trend factor — by asking insurers to examine their businesses and take various factors into account, including legislation and reforms, economic events […]
Daniel Peak, national senior manager of private payer strategy at Sanofi, is retiring on April 26. As senior manager, Peak led the development and implementation of Sanofi’s strategy to facilitate a sustainable private payer business environment. He was also the project leader of the Sanofi Canada health-care survey. Read: Sanofi survey finds 85% of plan members used drug […]
Health Canada has proposed amendments to the Food and Drug Regulations that would make it easier for drug companies to get authorization to produce generic versions of brand name drugs. The amendments would allow Health Canada to more quickly to approve generic drug applications that have the same active ingredients as their brand name equivalent […]