Does disability interfere with an organization’s right to terminate employment and employer-provided benefits? It’s a question that commonly arises when it comes to employees who have been away from work and in receipt of long-term disability benefits for extended periods of time. Generally, and subject to applicable statutory entitlements respecting termination pay and severance, it […]
A recent Court of Appeal of Alberta dismissal of a case relating to age discrimination and the eligibility of receiving long-term disability benefits provides some clarity to future legal interpretation of similar employer-sponsored plans. In International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers, Local 1007 v. Epcor Utilities Inc., the union’s appeal related to whether a long-term disability […]
What’s an employer to do when it faces benefits costs for employees on long-term disability for up to 10 years? Earlier this year, the B.C. Court of Appeal weighed in on the issue with a ruling that, while failing to interfere with an earlier finding that a municipality’s decision to fire three employees in that […]
Many employees know the value of taking part in their company-sponsored savings plan but unfortunately not enough. They know it’s a valuable tool to help them grow their retirement savings and prepare them for the day they will need to draw on those savings. Many company-sponsored plans are a good start for retirement savings but need to be supplemented with personal saving outside of the plan.
If you ask many plan sponsors and/or group insurers, disability plan costs are increasing at concerning rates. Disability plan costs tend to be somewhat variable—always have—but are we experiencing a fundamental change in the nature of the risk? What is the road ahead for disability plan costs?
The Federal Court of Canada has approved the settlement between the Government of Canada and the members of a class action regarding the Royal Canadian Mounted Police long-term disability insurance plan.
Ontario's budget, which received royal assent last week, included an amendment to the Insurance Act to prohibit the provision of long-term disability benefits in Ontario unless they're provided through an insured arrangement with a licensed insurer, according to a Blakes Bulletin.
By now, most employers are well aware that mental health problems present serious issues for the workplace. But even with greater awareness, employers are still challenged by what to do about it. Speakers at the 2013 Mental Health Summit held recently in Vancouver presented a host of ideas for improving how employers deal with mental health in the workplace.
Many of us unfortunately know someone who has experienced a traumatic event. It could be an unexpected event like a sudden death, diagnosis of a terminal illness, a workplace accident resulting in serious injury or death, a car accident, a robbery or act of violence, or a natural disaster. Generally, people who have either directly experienced or witnessed a traumatic event will report feelings of unpreparedness, powerlessness and helplessness. For those managing a person who has been through a trauma, it’s easy to feel overwhelmed and ill-equipped to deal with the situation and effectively help the person affected.
The single most unappreciated asset in the design and management of employer-sponsored health benefit plans is transactional-level claims data. In addition to the more obvious benefit of optimizing the financial performance of the plan, the less intuitive value of accessing and utilizing transactional-level claims data is its utility as a strategic planning tool and measuring return on investment. What makes the set of transactional-level claims data even more exciting in 2013 is the ability to more easily integrate drug claims (by far the most numerous and robust from a data perspective), with short-term disability and long-term disability data sets.