There’s a raging epidemic underway in Canada that receives very little attention, despite its devastating impacts. It wreaks havoc on people’s health, fuels the opioid crisis and costs the Canadian economy billions. We’re talking about the epidemic of musculoskeletal conditions in Canada. The statistics paint a grim picture: the combined direct and indirect cost of […]
There’s a reason so many episodes of Seinfeld and Curb Your Enthusiasm penned by Larry David revolve around the annoyances of medical appointments. To paraphrase the acerbic comedian — they’re pretty, prettttty, pretttttty bad. Going to a medical appointment used to mean taking at least part of a day off work, rushing to be on […]
It all started with a mechanical bull and too much tequila. Mike McClenahan wasn’t initially sold on virtual physiotherapy when he first met with Phzio, a telerehabilitation provider, back in 2018. But after a client’s Christmas party at a country and western bar that involved too much liquid courage, the then-managing partner of Benefits by […]
Bee-Clean Building Maintenance janitors in British Columbia ratified their first collective agreement on Monday, winning employer-paid health and dental benefits, paid sick days and a wage boost. Employees who are members of Services Employees International Union Local 2 reached the tentative agreement on Friday, mere days before they were set to picket at various locations across B.C.’s Lower […]
The coronavirus pandemic led to a sharp decrease in people visiting health professionals and filing claims, resulting in an estimated savings of $4.8 billion for Canadian private insurers between March 15 and June 15, according to a new report by insurance comparison platform Hellosafe.ca. The report, which used historic data sourced from the Canadian Life and Health […]
Canadians received a record $103 billion in benefits from life and health insurers last year, up 60 per cent from a decade earlier, according to the Canadian Life and Health Insurance Association’s annual fact book. The benefits include $53.3 billion in pension annuity payments, $38.1 billion in health benefits for prescription drugs and supplementary health […]
In response to the coronavirus pandemic, more than half of Canadian employers (53 per cent) are enhancing their well-being programs, while 27 per cent are planning to make changes to improve health benefits, according to a new survey by Willis Towers Watson. The survey, which polled nearly 150 Canadian employers with more than 800,000 employees, […]
While the vast majority of Canadians say the coronavirus pandemic is impacting their mental health, just 60 per cent are receiving the treatment or social support they need. “We’ve asked them, what are the barriers? Why aren’t they accessing the resources?” said Sophie Ouellet, vice-president of business development at Sun Life Canada, during a session on […]
The City of Mississauga’s acting senior manager of total rewards talks virtual health care, pension communications and spending time with family. Q. What top challenges do you face in your role? A. I think we can say there are two worlds: pre-coronavirus and post-coronavirus. In the current situation, the top challenge is making sure our […]
The pandemic changed our world and our jobs overnight and stretched compassion, empathy and flexibility to the limit. There has never been a better time to reconsider everything about employee benefits. For me as a benefits consultant, the crisis has highlighted how unprepared the typical benefits plan is to truly support the needs of employees in […]