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Welcome to the Feb 25 addition of the Friday GAB – a weekly round up of the happenings in the group benefits industry. Time to spill the tea.
First up service disruptions are happening at SSQ due to ongoing negotiations (supported by a mediator) with their union employees. Also in service, rumors are Manulife has done another round of layoffs with 175 employees being affected. Manulife did a round of layoff last December as well. If you or someone you know have been affected by this and are looking for a job please reach out to me. I am happy to help with introductions and over in my day job at Equitable Life we are hiring in many departments. In happier news, Sterling Capital Brokers is getting a cash injection with an investment from private equity firm True Wind Capital. John Griffin says this significant growth investment will enable Sterling to accelerate their platform enhancements to deliver smarter, more integrated solutions. Congratulations Sterling and True Wind! I expect we’ll see more M&A activity from Sterling this year as well. In product news, GSC is updating their enrolment to be more inclusive, Sun Life is making updates to their medical cannabis offering by including edibles, topical and extract forms (and is annoyingly asking for you location when you visit their website) and Manulife has expanded the partnerships to include Wellwise by Shoppers in “The Provider Network” Last, Telus Health sent out save the dates for their annual conference. Personally, one of my fav events, this year it’s a two day virtual event covering the “most up to date drug and benefit data trends for 2022, the latest developments in the industry and what it means for you”. The 2023 event will be interesting as the data will no longer include Sun Life certificates and instead include Desjardins certificates. Welcome to the February 18 addition of the Friday GAB, a weekly roundup of all the things happening in the group benefits industry. Send me your news and updates to [email protected]
Fraud is bad CLHIA announced a new anti-fraud initiative that uses advanced AI to further identify and reduce benefits fraud. This initiative to pool claims data is using technology provider Shift Technology to analyze industry-wise anonymized claim data. This will give insurers the edge they need to connect the dots and over time lead to more investigations and prosecutions. Benefits fraud is a widespread and costly issue – a multi billion dollar issue in fact. Cutting fraud by even just 1% will save plan sponsors and employees $270 Million in claims. Afterall it is the plan sponsor who ends up paying for fraud. This initiative is being funded across the entire life and health insurance industry through the CHLIA as the next step in enhancing these efforts. I know Sun Life and Equitable Life have confirmed they are part of the program. Most insurers are, but a handful may have opted out. Benefits fraud is a serious crime. You can learn more about fraud and report it as fraudisfraud.ca Internet based pharmacy isn't going anywhere Pocketpills – “Canada’s only national and bilingual online pharmacy” has announced the creation of an advisory board which will provide strategic guidance to support company growth. The advisory board members named as Ivan Ernest, Arlene Dickinson and Sanjay Cherian. Contract updates Last for this week, Sun Life is tackling Clarica heritage policies with contract wording updates. Dental codes and dee guides are the target of the wording update Welcome back to the Friday GAB where I round up the news from the week and share it with you. What’s the what this week you ask? It was a big one! As always email me the news you see! I’m not an oracle (yet) so I do miss things. [email protected]
Risky Business Dental fee guides were updated and they aren’t pretty. BC is leading the pack with a 7.35% increase. NS is also in the 7% club Most provinces are close to 5% - ON is at 4.75 after a 4 and change increase last year. Alberta is enjoying their first ever fee guide increase – welcome to the fee guide club! Impact to claims is obvious which means that employees can expect to pay more out of pocket and hit their maximums faster. Employers should be budgeting for higher than normal rate changes. ON made a big announcement yesterday. The province is seeking advice on designing benefit plans tied to workers, not employers. This advisory panel will advise on how benefits can reside with the worker and provide recommendation on how to administer this program. CLHIA tweeted about it. GSC had a big week. They announced that JP Girard has joined as the EVP and Head of Insurance. Congrats JP! Along with a partnership with Alavida and Rise People. You may recall that Sun Life has begun to move away from Rise. ON isn’t’ the only province up to stuff Alberta, NS and Quebec are moving into new phases of biosimilar switching programs and BC has given physicians the power to prescribe a park pass. In other carrier news Equitable Life announced a preferred biosimilar program. This program will generate additional savings for plan sponsors in a time where we all really need to reduce cost. The program will take effect March 1, 2022 for all NEW claimants and May 1, 2022 for existing claimants in Alberta who are switching to a Humira biosimilar as to align with the changes to the provincial plan. Sun Life is moving their EFAP to the Lumino Health platform (powered by Dialogue). As of June 1, 2022 the EAP with RightDirections (powered by LifeWorks) will no longer be available and clients will transition to Lumino Health. Clients will need to sign a new EAP application. Depending on which level of EAP clients had they will either face an increase or decrease in their EAP rates. I’m a fan of advisors curating their own suite of value partnerships so you don’t have so many services tied to the insurer and you have fewer products hiding in the healthcare rates. On the one hand, a common bill is nice, but on the other hand it’s a nightmare for employees moving their EAP, wellness program, virtual care provider, second opinion program, optional insurance and more when you move the benefits program. Also in Sun Life news they have launched a new feasibility study for disability management. As always contact your local Account Executive for more information. And that’s this week’s tea! On this weeks The Friday GAB - Acquisitions in the Group Benefit Space!
Employee Assistance Program and wellbeing provider, LifeWorks acquires Breaking Free AGA Benefit Solutions is acquiring J&D Benefits and Barclay Insurance services is merging with Sterling Capital I didn't notice any insurance carrier product updates or news this week. Let me know if I missed anything. [email protected] It’s the Friday GAB A weekly round up of the happenings in the employee benefits industry. Have an update you want to share? Email it to [email protected]
Either my tracking of events this week was poor due to the flu takin me down or it was a quite week. This week I have three updates to report. First up, Manitoba Blue Cross introduced pay direct at the pharmacy for the popular Dexcom CGM. This is available for plan members who have CGM coverage and have obtained prior authorization. Second, RBC has made the LTD claiming experience easier when transitioning from STD. Claimants on STD will not longer need to submit an LTD claim form. Third, Equitable Life has announced a new bonus program. Last Up, Pacific Blue Cross has released their updated R&C levels for paramedical practitioners and announced that Heidi Worthington, our Senior Vice President, Chief Revenue Office and Chief Operating Officer, Work & Wellness, will be departing Pacific Blue Cross for an exciting opportunity as President & CEO of YMCA Greater Vancouver. As always, connect with your local group Account Executive to learn more. Education Events – if you’re looking for CE credits, Mapol Inc has a session coming up on Feb 1, Equitable Life Feb 9, Connex Feb 10, your local CPBI, and ISCEBS chapters have a good session line up and Benefits Canada always has lots of CE events. And that’s the Friday GAB. Are you ready? It's time for the tea. Every Friday I'll be here sharing the latest updates from the employee benefits industry.
Send your group benefit industry updates to [email protected]! Phew! it was a busy week. I think everyone saved their announcements for this week. In particular Wednesday of this week. Merger and Acquisition activity Always a busy category. This week we had a big one in the Virtual Care / Digital Health space with Maple acquiring Wello. Next we have Navacord with three new acquisitions People Sun Life was excited to announce Marie-Chantal Cote as their new SVP Group Benefits. Product Many insurers have updated their COVID test requirements for STD along with the waiting period (back to standard from day 1) Manulife has ended their partnership with HR Downloads and their value add HR Solutions Product will no longer be included in plans. Current plan sponsors will have access to this product drop off at the end of March. GSC is offering one free therapy session via InkBlot (who they own) for women. I may be biased, but I like this. The follow up rate is also only $75 which is much less than what most counselling sessions cost. Health Canada approved psychedelics for medical use. This is good news for clinics like Field Trip. Maybe some insurers will build coverage for these clinics. Telus has jumped onto the virtual pharmacy train made popular by PocketPills SSQ has launched a new drug cost tool that lets members determine their drug coverage and compare prices at near by pharmacies. Sun Life has launched Surrogacy benefits and fertility services benefits. Equitable Life is expanding their already strong digital new group process and is piloting an online group benefits application with full rollout coming later in the year. Not sure how to categorize? League is officially a unicorn! La Capital will begin their transition into the Beneva brand next week and SSQ will follow later. Much later. So business as usual at SSQ. If you're looking to learn, or just need CE credits, Connex has a great session coming up in Feb that I'll be participating in, I also saw Empire Life has an industry outlook session next week and Equitable Life has a CE credited webinar in Feb. I'm sure you can get links to register from your local Account Executive. And that's the tea! |
