Weight management drugs and high-cost specialty treatments are expected to have the biggest impact on private drug plans this year, according to Telus Health’s annual drug pipeline report. It found spending on weight management drugs has more than quadrupled since 2021. In 2024, the category doubled in size following the launch of Wegovy (semaglutide) in […]
Preventing benefits fraud is a core priority for the Canadian Life and Health Insurance Association because it helps keep benefits plans accessible and affordable for the 27 million Canadians that depend on them, says Richelle Feddema, the organization’s senior manager of anti-fraud member management. Insurers are working together through the CLHIA’s ‘Fraud = Fraud’ program, […]
Rising rates of chronic illness among younger people and women are changing the picture of chronic disease in Canada, according to Sun Life data. Forty-five per cent of Canadians now live with a chronic disease, said Alexandra Dalkie, the insurer’s director of ePharmacy, during Benefits Canada’s 2026 Chronic Disease at Work conference. While older Canadians […]
Private benefits plan sponsors’ spending on weight-management drugs has quadrupled since 2021, according to a new report by Telus Health. In 2024 alone, the category doubled in size, ranking No. 17 overall by eligible amount (up from No. 29 in 2023). Still, the category’s budget impact remains low. By the end of June 2025, the […]
When a plan sponsor was seeing musculoskeletal issues come up in disability claims, it wanted to figure out if it could do more to support employees, according to Tamara Harduwar (pictured right), Manulife Canada’s director of health insights and outcomes for group benefits. During a session at Benefits Canada’s 2025 Healthy Outcomes Conference, she said […]
Plan sponsors have far more access to benefits utilization and organizational health data than in recent years, but challenges persist with fragmentation and consistency across providers, as well as as difficulty turning data into action, according to a panel discussion at Benefits Canada’s 2025 Healthy Outcomes Conference. “We have 12 sources of data [from external […]
Weight management medications emerged as the fastest growing drug category in 2024, with claims for these drugs surging by 90.6 per cent since 2023, according to Telus Health’s annual drug report. The report, which is based on claims data from more than 15 million plan members in 2024, found the increase in claims was driven […]
Canada’s workforce increasingly reflects the unique health challenges faced by its female population. Between 2018 and 2023, women represented a little more than half of the total claimants and spend in Express Scripts Canada’s drug claims data, according to Farah Belayadi, the organization’s senior manager of clinical services and health technology database, during Benefits Canada’s […]
Between 2019 and 2023, chronic disease drug claims increased much faster among younger plan members compared to older generations, according to a new report by Sun Life. The report, which analyzed drug claims data of more than 3 million plan members over a five-year period, found across all age groups, nearly half (45.1 per cent) of […]
The percentage of claimants filing claims for obesity drugs increased by 43 per cent in 2023, according to a new report by GreenShield. The report, which analyzed the insurer’s 2023 claims data, found diabetes medications saw a 13 per cent increase in cost, accounting for nine per cent of total drug costs in 2023. There […]