The Canadian Life and Health Insurance Association has been conducting weekly calls with its members since mid-January to discuss issues around the ongoing coronavirus crisis, including how insurers can develop messaging and policies to communicate to plan sponsors. “We’ve basically been facilitating weekly calls to say, ‘OK, we have a very fluid situation.’ It changes […]
The issue of whether long-term disability claims are arbitrable or matters for the court, which has plagued Ontario’s hospital sector for over a quarter of a century, is on its way to the Supreme Court of Canada. “The current state of the law, which denies employees seeking long-term disability benefits under insurance policies issued pursuant […]
A former federal government employee is launching a proposed $10-million class action lawsuit against Sun Life over how the insurer calculated cost-of-living increases on long-term disability benefits payments. The claim, filed in the Ontario Superior Court of Justice by Ottawa law firm Connolly Obagi LLP, alleges Sun Life willfully miscalculated the cost-of-living increases incorrectly for Giulia Belec, the […]
An Ontario group benefits advisor is calling on Canadian insurers to change a long-term disability practice that adversely affects employees at small companies. Dave Patriarche, president of Mainstay Insurance Brokerage Inc. and founder of the Canadian Group Insurance Brokers, is asking Canada’s major insurers to make a small administrative change that would ensure employees at […]
Since my last two editorials have targeted issues around pension plan design and retirement readiness, I’m balancing things out this month by turning my attention to benefits. Fortunately, I have strong opinions on the topic of this month’s cover story. Since I joined Benefits Canada four years ago, I’ve noticed that paramedical benefits — and […]
Historically, Epcor Utilities Inc. provided employees with $1,000 in annual coverage for each paramedical service, ranging from massage therapists, physiotherapists and chiropractors to speech therapists, naturopaths and dieticians. But in 2018, the Edmonton-based utilities company looked at its annual paramedical costs and found its massage therapy spend had ballooned to nearly match the cost of […]
With three confirmed cases of the coronavirus in Canada, 40 potential cases under investigation and the World Health Organization declaring the virus an international public health emergency, unions — especially those representing transport and health-care workers — are calling on employers to ensure sufficient safety measures are in place. The Ontario Nurses Union sent out […]
On Dec. 12, the 2019 Vancouver Mental Health Summit showcased ideas on how to approach mental health in the workplace, including how to remove the stigma of mental illness and what plan sponsors can do to facilitate positive return-to-work transitions. Considering how mental-health support, accommodation is changing Sixty per cent of working Canadians have experienced […]
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, […]