Health Canada says it’s delaying the implementation of long-awaited changes to Canada’s drug-pricing regime by another six months. A spokesman for the department, says the amendments to patented medicine regulations, which were set to take effect Jan. 1, will now come into force on July 1. Geoffroy Legault-Thivierge says the postponement is intended to give pharmaceutical manufacturers […]
In its 2020 budget submission to the Ontario government, the Canadian Life and Health Insurance Association is highlighting a lack of access to affordable prescription drugs and inflexible pension plans. With respect to prescription drugs, the CLHIA noted it supports the federal Patented Medicine Prices Review Board reforms, which were introduced on Friday. “It is crucial that the […]
When the Canadian Life and Health Insurance Association rolled out its proposed compensation disclosure guideline in January 2018, it quickly inflamed tensions with group benefits and retirement advisors. The guideline, G19, stipulated that all of the CLHIA’s insurer members begin disclosing to plan sponsors the fees, commissions and bonuses they paid to advisors. Facing backlash […]
Canadians received a record $103 billion in benefits from life and health insurers last year, up 60 per cent from a decade earlier, according to the Canadian Life and Health Insurance Association’s annual fact book. The benefits include $53.3 billion in pension annuity payments, $38.1 billion in health benefits for prescription drugs and supplementary health […]
The Canadian Life and Health Insurance Association is recommending the federal government develop a strategy for high-cost drugs for rare diseases, potentially by harmonizing catastrophic drug coverage across the country. In its August federal budget submission to the standing committee on finance, the association noted specialty drugs, including those for chronic and rare disease, made up just two […]
The Canadian Life and Health Insurance Association is appointing Jean-François Chalifoux, chief executive officer of SSQ Life Insurance Co. Inc., as the new chair of its board of directors. Chalifoux took on the top job at SSQ in 2015. Previously, he held several executive roles at Canadian insurance companies, including most recently at Desjardins Insurance, where he first headed […]
Industry groups had mixed feelings about an expert panel’s report calling for a single-payer pharmacare plan. Released on Wednesday by Eric Hoskins, former Ontario health minister, the report recommended Canada and the provinces work together to create a unified program that addresses the country’s patchwork of prescription drug plans. Provinces and territories, the panel said, […]
The Canadian Life and Health Insurance Association is withdrawing guideline G19 on advisor compensation for group benefits and retirement services. “Following extensive discussions with market players, including advisors and their associations, and careful consideration of what we heard, we have decided to withdraw this industry guideline,” said Stephen Frank, CLHIA’s president and chief executive officer, in […]
In response to proposed amendments to a regulation under Ontario’s Health Insurance Act, the Canadian Life and Health Insurance Association is suggesting employers providing group travel insurance may start paying more for these products. The proposed change, set for Oct. 1, 2019, will result in no provincial coverage for medical emergencies that occur out of the country. In […]
The Canadian Life and Health Insurance Association is to be commended on its proactivity in proposing a new guideline for compensation disclosure in group benefits and group retirement services. But while transparency is a key driver of client satisfaction, in other countries — like Australia and the U.K. — it has taken regulators to force the hand […]