While physical well-being is vital during the coronavirus pandemic, the situation is raising multiple mental-health issues, including rising stress levels exacerbated by job uncertainty and social isolation. Looking at mental-health policies and tools, innovative practices and work-from-home protocols, Benefits Canada hosted a panel of experts in a webinar on March 31 to answer plan sponsor […]
The coronavirus pandemic is expected to impact employers’ short-term disability claims’ experience as workers fall ill and require time off work to recover from the virus, but plan sponsors may also have to prepare for an increase in long-term disability claims after the crisis eventually ends. The spike in claims could follow the same pattern as it did […]
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 […]