The Empire Life Insurance Co. is adding telemedicine services to its group benefits plans. Beginning Sept. 1, 2020, all employees whose plan sponsors offer Empire Life’s group benefits will automatically have access to the new service, provided by Teladoc Health. “Nearly two in five Canadians say they have faced COVID-related barriers to medical care,” said […]
Morneau Shepell Ltd. is expanding its clinical network capacity by 25 per cent. The growth, which is intended to increase the organization’s ability to provide immediate mental-health support to Canadians, anticipated a rise in outreach for coronavirus-related concerns, such as anxieties around returning to work and children returning to school and compounding stress about an […]
Dialogue is expanding its health-care services by introducing an employee assistance program. The mobile-first EAP, which will be integrated into the company’s virtual-care services, aims to connect employees with the right professional quickly through an easy-to-use app. Employees will receive quick virtual access to practitioners across multiple disciplines, including mental health, financial services, legal support, […]
Best Buy Canada Ltd. has had a well-used on-site gym at its Burnaby, B.C. head office for a decade. But when employees started working from home during the pandemic, the company decided to bring the gym to their laptops with a virtual fitness program. “We realized that staying fit and staying active was something we […]
The City of Mississauga’s acting senior manager of total rewards talks virtual health care, pension communications and spending time with family. Q. What top challenges do you face in your role? A. I think we can say there are two worlds: pre-coronavirus and post-coronavirus. In the current situation, the top challenge is making sure our […]
EQ Care is forming a partnership with RWAM Insurance Administrators Inc. with the aim of facilitating access to virtual health-care services. RWAM, a Canadian third-party administrator of group insurance benefits, offers services including medical consulting sessions, triage and medication prescribing. Read: EQ Care, myHSA enter agreement expanding access to telemedicine Virtual health-care services could be […]
Digital benefits company myHSA and virtual health-care organization EQ Care are entering into an agreement to expand access to telemedicine. Through the agreement, EQ Care will be added to myHSA’s Benefits Bucket suite, so plan members can access on-demand health-care support by experienced medical professionals who have received in-depth training on the coronavirus. Read: Sun […]
Canada could experience a 2.6-fold increase in visits to mental-health practitioners and up to a 20 per cent increase in antidepressant prescriptions due to the impacts of the coronavirus pandemic, according to a new report by Deloitte. The report explored the human and social impact of natural disasters and periods of economic hardship — such as […]
Sun Life Financial is making an equity investment of $32.7 million in Canadian telemedicine provider Dialogue, with the two entities forming a strategic commercial partnership. Through the deal, Sun Life will hold a minority ownership position in Dialogue. The round of financing also includes further investments from existing backers, including the Caisse de dépôt et placement […]
iA Financial Group is launching a service for its group plan members to target major mental-health issues that contribute to absenteeism and disability claims. The new mental-health coaching service, which will be managed by health services provider Novus Health, is set to launch on Aug. 1, 2020 and will be provided to plan members for […]