Insurance industry drug pooling begins Jan. 1

In April, the Canadian Life and Health Insurance Association (CLHIA) announced the creation of an industry-wide drug pooling agreement that will protect fully insured private drug plans from bearing the full financial burden of high-cost drugs.

Eckler, in its December Group News, is reminding plan sponsors that the objective of this pooling agreement is to allow employers to maintain their fully insured drug coverage plans even if one of their employees is incurring a very high-cost drug.

All fully insured group policies must be covered by their insurer’s internal pool as of the group policy’s first renewal date on or after Jan. 1, 2013.

Insurers are including documents explaining the process for applicable groups, as they release their renewal packages for 2013.

Find more on this on the CLHIA website.