Visit Beneco


When you leave home you shouldn't have to worry about anything. Atlas Travel has a variety of plans to cover everything from emergency hospital & medical insurance, trip cancelation, single and multi-trip plans, and student coverage when traveling outside of Canada.

You will feel secure knowing your financially protected during your travels.

Best Doctors Elite Diagnostic Imaging Service - for companies 10 employees and up. We all know the kind of wait times we experience today for medical services. If you require Diagnostic Imaging to help diagnose a serious medical condition, you can be facing a 2 to 3 month wait, or even longer. Of course, this adds additional anxiety to the stress of worrying what the results of the test will be. Best Doctors Elite Diagnostic Imaging Service provides rapid access to diagnostic facilities and medical consulting.
Click here to download documentation

September 2012 Bulletin

News from The Benefit Specialists Corp.

From: The Benefit Specialists Corp. <sean.murray@telus.net>
Subject: News from The Benefit Specialists Corp.
Reply: sean.murray@telus.net

Dear sean,

 

We hope you enjoy the September 2012 edition of our bulletin.  Please feel free to

contact us if you ever have any questions or concerns, we are here to help!


 The Benefit Specialists Corp. Newsletter

 


    

                            September 2012


In This Issue
 
Quick Links
www.beneco.ca   

View our videos on YouTube
 Follow us on Twitter
 Find us on Facebook
 View our profile on LinkedIn

How to do Things

www.howtodothings
 .com

TSN
www.tsn.ca 
 
Best Doctors Elite
Tell your friends!
The Benefit Specialists Corp. is more than willing to answer any questions you or anyone you know may have had.  If you know someone who has questions regarding the insurance industry or anyone who wants to join our mailing list please contact me, or forward this email to them and get them to click the join our mailing list button below.

Thanks!
Join Our List
Join Our Mailing List

Why Choose a Broker? 

 Insurance is a complicated commodity. There are minimum legal requirements for certain kinds of coverage, minimum kinds of coverage for certain kinds of things, and there are things that you can't get coverage for. The rules are constantly changing, to stay on top of what the best options for your circumstances are, and at the best possible price, you need an insurance broker. The insurance broker invests the time necessary to learn what kind of customers insurance carriers want. Matching the insurance customer with the company that wants to insure those kinds of customers results in a good rate. It isn't any more complicated than that!

 

You need help making your insurance decisions. You need to know that what you have purchased will meet your needs. You need to know that what you have purchased meets the legal requirements. You need to know that the people working for you by choice put your interests ahead of theirs. That is what brokers do! Choose a broker and you will find them dedicated to meeting your needs not theirs. It is how we judge each other in front of our customers and those who don't meet our own standards are separated from the business we do.

The Rough Road of Biologics:
Source: Benefits Canada

 

Many biologic drugs have a high price tag but they also provide employees a much healthier life and, in some cases, an easier return to work. So how does an employer balance the cost and benefit of biologics on its drug plan?

That was the focus of the panel discussion at the Face to Face Drug Plan Management 2011 conference yesterday, held at the Fairmont Royal York in Toronto.

Jeff Aarssen, vice-president, group retirement services, sales and marketing, wealth management, with Great-West Life (GWL) began the discussion with an anecdote of his personal journey with rheumatoid arthritis. He talked of how supportive GWL has been: allowing flexible work hours (including the flexibility to work virtually when needed), providing an ergonomic keyboard and office chair, and, of course, paying a drug price of $21,000 a year for his chronic condition.

This led into a discussion of the challenges biologics bring for providers, employers and patients.

While it's important to make sure employees are covered for drugs, Tim Clarke, Canada's health and benefits innovation leader with Aon Hewitt, said there are many questions to consider. Is that cost (of a biologic) a priority? Is the benefit worth it? If it is, then the plan sponsor has to look at what it's doing and see where its priorities lay.

Sal Cimino, director, pharmacy services, with Green Shield Canada, agreed. Plan sponsors need to nail down their biologics philosophy, so they know which drugs to cover and how, he said. "If plan sponsors haven't done that philosophical exercise, they should do it."

Another issue is the importance of working together. Sustainability is the elephant in the room, said Cimino, and we're still working in silos.

"It's [determining] how to get different stakeholders all talking and knowing what one another needs to know, how insurers can look at cost savings and what part of government and employer takes ownership for the drug," said Clarke.

It's going to take integrations, but who's going to spur that discussion?" asked Cimino.

Mark Rolnick, product director, pharmaceutical benefits, with Sun Life Financial, said that drug plan sustainability is critical from the private/public perspective. "A rare disease can cripple a private plan:' he said.

"As a small employer, one large claim can have an impact on rates going forward," said Clarke, suggesting that pooling, then, is an option. However, pooling used to be set up as a one-time thing, and now we know these employees will be on these drugs for an extended period of time. There is some discussion going on at the industry level and, to some extent, at the government level , but we're not necessarily there yet, he said.

There is also the issue of cost for the patient. Most of the specialty-type biologics have patient assistance programs - paying upward of 20% of the total cost of the medication-which a patient could be eligible for, said Rolnick. One Amgen representative in the audience said that Amgen does have such a program that is used on a case-by-case basis. However, the rep stressed that while the company really does want to continue to do this, it wonders how long it will be able to.

Aarssen said that partnership is definitely key. "The power of many is far more important than the power of one," he said. "You can't handle this on your own."

Source: Benefits Canada (December 2, 2011)

 

  Benefits for Contractors:

  

Do you have a large number of contractors working for your company and you are wondering if there are group benefit options for them?

 

Are there contractors covered under your plan that shouldn't be?

 

The Benefit Specialists can help. At TBSC we provide two options:

 

1.  Contract employees may purchase a plan for individual Health and Dental through a variety of carriers who offer several options for this type of coverage.All we need is the birthdates of all members to be covered under the policy to run quotes, and then we will provide the application and other requirements to move forward.

 

2.  If a company has a class comprised of contractors alone, and these contractors work 100% of their time for your company, we can provide them all benefits, not just Health and Dental.We would require an employee listing with names, dates of birth and other pertinent information.With this data, we can approach carriers and request quotes.

 

How can TBSC provide these benefits?

 

In our efforts to serve the wide variety of needs our clients have, we have aligned ourselves with several carriers who offer a variety of options for employers like you.Whether your company requires just Health and Dental, Life and Long Term Disability benefits, or the whole gamut, TBSC will send out quotes and get the best possible option.As each carrier has different requirements and definitions as to what constitutes a contract employee, we require that the aforementioned information be submitted so we can ensure smooth implementation.

 

The information contained in this bulletin is for general information purposes only. The articles published in this bulletin have been collected by The Benefit Specialists Corp. (TBSC) and we make no representations or warranties of any kind, express or implied, about the completeness, accuracy, reliability or availability with respect to the information, products, services, or related graphics contained.  Any reliance you place on such information is therefore strictly at your own risk.  In no event will we be liable for any loss or damage including without limitation, indirect or consequential loss or damage, or any loss or damage whatsoever arising from loss of data or profits out of, or in connection with, the use of the information contained in this bulletin.  Through this bulletin you are able to link to other websites which are not under the control of TBSC.  We have no control over the nature, content and availability of those sites. The inclusion of any links does not necessarily imply a recommendation or endorse the views expressed within them.
Sean Murray
The Benefit Specialists Corp.
sean.murray@beneco.ca
(403) 547-5236

This email was sent to sean.murray@telus.net by sean.murray@telus.net |  
The Benefit Specialists Corp. | 339 Tuscany Estates Rise NW | Calgary | Alberta | T3L 0C6 | Canada