All Ontarians under the age of 65 who spend a significant amount of their annual household income on prescription drugs are eligible for the Trillium drug program, provided their private plan doesn’t cover the entire cost of their medications. But besides eligibility, how does the program work? Ontarians using the Trillium program must pay a deductible […]
A report published last week suggested that making certain prescription medications available as over-the-counter drugs could save Canadian insurers, employers, governments and patients $1 billion each year. The report dealt with proton pump inhibitors (which treat gastroesophageal reflux disease), oral contraceptives and erectile dysfunction drugs. Researchers noted making them available as over-the-counter products could lower drug costs […]
Postmedia Network Canada Corp. is making a number of changes to its defined benefit pension plan, its capital accumulation plans and its benefits plans, according to a document from the newspaper company’s human resources department. Only non-unionized employees — approximately 71 per cent of the workforce — were affected. The organization is closing its defined […]
In its latest round of negotiations with Canada Post, the Union of Postal Communications Employees, a division of the Public Service Alliance of Canada, is fighting for defined benefit pensions for all of its members. “We believe that [defined contribution] does very little for the plan itself but has significant impact on our members’ retirement security,” […]
Patients with chronic pain and mental-health conditions prefer taking cannabis to prescribed opioid medication, a study published in the International Journal of Drug Policy has found. Researchers from the University of British Columbia and the University of Victoria tracked more than 250 patients who were being treated for conditions such as chronic pain, mental health and gastrointestinal […]
The Royal Bank of Canada will share its focus on sleep hygiene and the impact on mental health at the 2017 Benefits and Pension Summit in Toronto on April 11-12. “[Sleep] was something that came up consistently in our health risk assessment,” says Andrejka Massicotte, the bank’s director of Canadian benefits and wellness, who will speak […]
It may be fun for an architect to moonlight as a freelance photographer, but few people want a job title that’s full of slashes, whether as a social media manager/babysitter/barista or a substitute teacher/tutor/Uber driver. Many workers don’t have a choice, however. “In Canada, one of the things we see is employers moving away from […]
Forget the buzz around new target-benefit legislation. Multi-employer pension plans were here first, starting about 50 years ago. Particularly common in unionized, mobile workforces such as the construction and entertainment industries, most multi-employer plans essentially function as target benefits “because they do have the ability to reduce accrued benefits,” says Mike Mazzuca, a partner at Koskie […]
Workers at Vast-Auto Distribution in Brampton, Ont. have ratified a new collective agreement after a week on the picket line. The workers, represented by Unifor, were striking over wages that were significantly lower than those of their colleagues in Quebec doing the same work, as well as having to split the cost of benefits with their […]
Thirty-one employees at St. Michael’s Hospital in Toronto have been fired in relation to “irregularities in some employee health benefit claims,” spokesperson Leslie Shepherd confirmed in an email to Benefits Canada. The irregularities were discovered during a routine audit, and approximately $200,000 worth of claims were found to be in breach of the hospital’s code of […]