Employers need to get proactive if they hope to prevent or slow the progress of chronic diseases in their workplaces. That was the message from Jennifer Elia, assistant vice-president of client experience, integrated health solutions, at Sun Life Financial during a session at Benefits Canada’s Chronic Disease at Work 2017 conference in May. The problem, […]
Julie Holden would like nothing more than to see doctor’s notes for short-term absences confined to the dust bin of history. And it’s not just the notoriously bad handwriting of medical professionals that Holden, a senior vice-president at SEB Benefits & HR Consulting Inc., has a problem with. “Even if you could make out what’s […]
What’s an employer to do when it faces benefits costs for employees on long-term disability for up to 10 years? Earlier this year, the B.C. Court of Appeal weighed in on the issue with a ruling that, while failing to interfere with an earlier finding that a municipality’s decision to fire three employees in that […]
Employers must acknowledge the role of family caregivers to get a true picture of the costs of cancer care, according to a University of Alberta professor. Janet Fast, a professor of department of human ecology at the University of Alberta, told the audience at Benefits Canada’s 2017 Employers Cancer Care Summit in February that the […]
Improvements in cancer treatments are driving patients out of hospital beds and back into their own homes. “Cancer is now a treatable, chronic disease. With these new therapies, we’re seeing a paradigm shift and a difference in the way patients are being treated,” Sandra Salama Anderson, vice-president of consulting and business development at Innomar Strategies […]
Developing new drugs is only half of the job for those treating lung cancer, according to a medical oncologist. Most people know that the biology of cancer is extremely complex. What fewer know, Dr. Paul Wheatley-Price told audience members at Benefits Canada’s 2017 Employers Cancer Care Summit on Feb. 21, is that “the machinery of […]
The old saying about an ounce of prevention being worth a pound of cure works just as well when it comes to cancer care as it does for any other medical ailment, if you ask Dr. Jeffrey Rothenstein. The medical oncologist at the R.S. McLaughlin Durham Regional Cancer Centre told the audience at Benefits Canada’s […]
Employers should reach out early and often to employees facing a cancer crisis, according to a man with first-hand experience. Asaph Benun told attendees at Benefits Canada’s 2017 Employers Cancer Care Summit in February his life took a major turn five years ago following his six-month-old son’s diagnosis with a rare blood cancer that doctors […]
Like most 19-year-olds, Gary Howe didn’t pay a great deal of attention to his pension entitlements when he signed up with Stelco Inc. as an apprentice industrial mechanic at its landmark plant in Hamilton, Ont. “At that age, I was more interested in my wages and how much cash I would have in my pocket,” […]
For such a small number, the discount rate used by a pension plan can have a very significant impact on its funded status. Actuaries use the rate to determine the present value of the plan’s future liabilities in order to check whether the fund has enough assets to meet its obligations as they arise. The […]