The American Association of Retired Persons Foundation and the law firm Garrison, Levin-Epstein, Fitzgerald and Pirrotti have filed a class-action lawsuit on behalf of Yale University employees who are objecting to their employer instituting fines for those who don’t participate in its wellness program. The university’s program requires its 5,000 unionized staff and their spouses to submit to medical […]
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 […]
Spectrum Therapeutics, the medical division of Canopy Growth Corp., is partnering with the Canadian Mental Health Association to develop an educational content module related to cannabis in the workplace. The module, which will be part of the CMHA’s workplace mental-health program Not Myself Today, will launch early next year. It will feature a number of physical […]
The Canadian Institute of Actuaries is recommending that any future national pharmacare system includes an actuary to oversee its revenue, expenses and funding status. “Canada’s actuaries — with public interest in mind — advise that any national pharmacare program should be based on sound risk management, financing and insurance principles,” noted the CIA in a press release. The […]
On May 24, the 2019 Vancouver Benefits Summit focused on how employers can make their organization its healthiest by starting with their benefits plans. Here’s what you missed! Panel: Should drug coverage for certain conditions still be optional? In many workplace drug plans, medications that treat certain conditions remain in the optional life category, but is […]
If the Canadian government wants to tackle drug coverage, it should focus on the areas where Canadians are facing genuine gaps, according to Joe Farago, executive director of health-care innovation at Innovative Medicines Canada. “The reality is only 1.8 per cent of Canadians have no form of private or public drug coverage,” said Farago, speaking at Benefits […]
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 […]
If the Canadian government wants to tackle drug coverage, it should focus on the areas where Canadians are facing genuine gaps, according to Joe Farago, executive director of health-care innovation at Innovative Medicines Canada. “The reality is only 1.8 per cent of Canadians have no form of private or public drug coverage,” said Farago, speaking at Benefits […]
Canada continues to have one of the highest rates of irritable bowel disorder in the world, according to Mina Mawani, president and chief executive officer of Crohn’s and Colitis Canada. “So right now we have about 270,000 Canadians living with Crohn’s or colitis,” she said at Benefits Canada‘s 2019 Calgary Benefits Summit at the Fairmont Palliser Hotel on […]
The Ontario government is launching a review of the Workplace Safety and Insurance Board to ensure the province’s employees and their families remain supported and protected in the workplace. The review will be conducted by Linda Regner Dykeman and Sean Speer, special advisors who’ve been appointed based on their respective areas of expertise in insurance and […]