Source: Benefits Canada | Author: Novartis From the article: Impact of Migraine The overall results from the survey demonstrate that migraine has a substantial impact on quality of life and productivity — about 80% of employees with migraine reported that migraine impacts their overall performance, productivity, concentration and ability to complete tasks at home and […]
Employers should review their drug plans annually to make sure they’re getting value for money, according to a speaker at the recent Face to Face Drug Plan Management forum.
“It’s good drug plan management hygiene,” said Kim MacFarlane, assistant vice-president of group benefit product at Manulife Financial Corp.
Even if the unwieldy nature of drug plans makes quick design changes difficult, she told the audience at the Dec. 14 event that plan sponsors can put themselves in a better position by identifying problem areas.
From biosimilars to product listing agreements, a panel of experts tackled some of the hottest topics in drug plan management at the Face to Face Drug Plan Management forum on Dec. 14.
“It sounds like a lovely solution,” Julia Brown, vice-president of government affairs and market access at Janssen Inc…. But it is “overly simplistic in its approach to what is a very complex health-care, drug reimbursement and patient environment,” she added.
But on the same panel, public policy professor Marc-André Gagnon countered that a consistent national formulary was a crucial component of a new system for pricing drugs.
Faced with the challenge of balancing employee needs and wants with changing workplaces and escalating plan costs, employers should prepare for a number of issues in the near future.
Here are seven trends to watch in the coming year and beyond:
As 2017 draws to a close, we turn our attention to the new year. As usual, there’s a lot happening in the Canadian pension environment. Below are four pension trends to watch for in 2018.
Sun Life Financial will be offering plan members on short- and long-term disability leave for depression or anxiety the chance to take part in a study on the impact of pharmacogenetic testing.
The insurer is participating in a study that examines the effectiveness of the technology in partnership with the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health and personalized medicine provider Assurex Health Inc.
The irony of pensions and benefits is that employees tend to ignore them until they need them or until their employer changes them. And whether it’s good news or bad news, there are almost always trade-offs.
Changing pensions or benefits can be a tough sell to employees. When employers say “change,” employees often hear “change for the worse” and are likely to react defensively. So what can plan sponsors do to ease employees’ anxiety and help ensure the change goes smoothly?
Just 11 per cent of employees are completely satisfied with the coverage levels for all five of the major areas of their health benefits plan, according to the 2017 Sanofi Canada health-care survey.
Members are especially keen to boost their coverage for…
