IBM Canada Ltd.’s director of HR talks data and analytics, holistic employee health and playing the piano Q. What top challenges do you face in your role? A. I want to help employees understand and fully leverage all of our benefits offerings. IBM provides competitive retirement saving vehicles and financial management tools, but I always […]
Sixty per cent of working Canadians have experienced a mental-health issue, an increase from 52 per cent in 2017, according to Sun Life’s 2019 barometer survey. However, the survey also found 60 per cent of working Canadians who are suffering from mental-health issues aren’t accessing support through their workplace benefits, said Carmen Bellows, the insurer’s senior mental-health […]
Workplace mental-health programs can demonstrate a huge return on investment for an organization’s bottom line, as well as reducing absenteeism and presenteeism, said Nir Yahav, mental-health specialist on the national disability best practices team at Manulife, during a session at Benefits Canada’s 2019 Vancouver Mental Health Summit on Dec. 12. There are huge costs associated with presenteeism, […]
While 2.7 million Canadians suffer from migraine, the condition can be subdivided based on its frequency, said Dr. Esma Dilli, neurologist and clinical assistant professor at the University of British Columbia, during Benefits Canada’s 2019 Vancouver Mental Health Summit on Dec. 12. Episodic migraine is defined by less than 15 headache days a month, whereas […]
People don’t often make the association between nutrition and long-term mood, as well as how diet can impact the brain’s function and its structure, according to Charmaine Alexander, senior advisor on Desjardins Insurance’s disability management team. “We know that between the rise of mental illness in our current lifestyle, just as with obesity, maybe what we’re […]
While insomnia is a disorder, it’s just as commonly a symptom, which most people and physicians don’t grasp, said Dr. Atul Khullar, medical director at the Northern Alberta Sleep Clinic. A lot of times, not sleeping is essentially the body breaking down because of a separate disorder, risk factor or residual symptom of a mental-health […]
Mental health isn’t fight club — it can be talked about, said Sean Raible, principal consultant at Game Plan Total Rewards, during Benefits Canada’s 2019 Vancouver Mental Health Summit on Dec. 12. “As a total rewards person, we don’t talk about compensation because it’s under lock and key. But mental health is a community where […]
While high-cost specialty medications represent about 30 per cent of drug costs, the total budget impact of rare disease drugs is less than two per cent, said Brad McCaw, associate director of market access at Alexion Pharmaceuticals Canada. Within the high-cost specialty market’s top 20 drugs, only one is designated for rare disease, he said […]
Pharmaceutical companies and private payers can interact in different ways to ensure the right drugs are getting to the right patients, according to Kathy Sotirakos, senior manager of market access and private insurance at Amgen. Real world evidence will help inform better decision-making from a predictability and outcomes perspective, she said during a panel at […]
As the landscape of Canadian drug plan management continues to evolve, several programs are being implemented by insurers and pharmacy benefits managers to help plan sponsors manage costs. Speaking on a panel at Benefits Canada’s 2019 Face to Face Drug Plan Management Forum on Dec. 3 in Toronto, Ned Pojskic, leader of pharmacy and health provider […]