The Public Service Alliance of Canada recently filed a policy grievance against the Treasury Board for its management of the transfer of the Public Service Health Care Plan to Canada Life Assurance Co., which has impacted tens of thousands of federal public service workers covered under the plan. In 2023, the federal government implemented two […]
Several stakeholders from the benefits sector are partnering to form the Smart Health Benefits Coalition, an advocacy group that aims to strengthen the health-care system and address longstanding gaps in care. The federal government will release the framework for its pharmacare program on March 1 and the coalition — comprised of representatives from Gallagher, Benefits Alliance, GroupHEALTH, Hub International Ltd., […]
In 2022, some of the top chronic conditions affecting group benefits plans were diabetes, obesity, depression and arthritis. Diabetes was the No. 1 ranked condition for drug claims in 2022, knocking rheumatoid arthritis down to the No. 2 spot, according to Telus Health’s annual drug plan trends report. And the 2023 Benefits Canada Healthcare Survey […]
Saskatchewan’s Public Employees Benefits Agency is transitioning to a not-for-profit corporation. The PEBA began pursuing the transition in 2021 at the request of the trustees of the two largest pension plans it administers — the Public Employees Pension Plan and the Municipal Employees Pension Plan. The not-for-profit will begin operations on Jan. 1, 2024 under the […]
An amendment to Manitoba’s Beneficiary Designation Act allows a pension plan member’s legal representative to now make a beneficiary designation on behalf of the member if they can’t make the designation themselves. However, the representative can only designate a beneficiary if the plan renews, replaces or converts a plan made by the participant and the same […]
The annual spend per private drug plan member increased by 6.3 per cent in 2022, according to Express Scripts Canada’s annual drug trends report. Across both traditional and specialty drugs, the increase was primarily driven by a 5.4 per cent rise in plan members making a claim, which reversed the trend seen in 2020 and […]
Half of benefits plan members (49 per cent) and plan sponsors (48 per cent) say they have a health-care spending account in 2022, compared to 39 per cent of both plan members and plan sponsors that said the same in 2021, according to the 2022 Benefits Canada Healthcare Survey. In 2017, when this question was […]
The Association of Canadian Pension Management and the Pension Investment Association of Canada are among the organizations saying proposed amendments to the federal Bankruptcy and Insolvency Act could negatively impact defined benefit pension plans. In an open letter to the House of Commons standing committee on finance, the ACPM and the PIAC — along with […]
Nearly three-quarters (72 per cent) of Canadian benefits plan members say they’re extremely or very satisfied with working from home, according to the 2022 Benefits Canada Healthcare Survey. It found levels of extreme or very high satisfaction were highest among those who also felt most productive working from home (89 per cent) and who were in […]
Nearly half (47 per cent) of Canadian benefits plan members say their health was generally excellent or very good in the past year, up from 43 per cent in 2021, according to the 2022 Benefits Canada Healthcare Survey. While just 10 per cent of plan members reported being in poor health, down from 13 per cent […]