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bh IN BRIEF   An influenza pandemic will most likely hit Canada quickly and wreak havoc. Very few businesses have written a pandemic plan despite the likelihood of both high risk and high impacts: • Absence rates between 15% and 35%.• Serious and prolonged effects on supply lines and customer spending.• Overwhelmed government, health care, […]

bh IN BRIEF   The number of employers with workplace health programs and services is still less than 50%. Financial incentives might encourage more employers to get on board, either through the tax system, or through Workers’ Compensation (see The Bottom Line this issue). There is some $14 billion spent by employers each year on […]

bh IN BRIEF   It would be great to know "two-thirds of everything", as David Foot wrote in his 1990s best-selling book. Alas, there is very little hard information available to guide plan sponsors in their interactions and decisions related to benefit plans and member needs. The best advice is simply to ask, and to […]

bh IN BRIEF   Employers are challenged by high-cost individual drug claims, especially by ‘new and improved’ (and costly) biologic products. Insurer claim pooling is inexpensive, but many employers don’t buy it, or believe it provides only limited protection after they incur a large claim. Ever-escalating claims are driving smaller employers to reduce or eliminate […]

bh IN BRIEF   Patient safety costs all Canadians, dearly. This includes employers because medical errors keep people away from work through extended hospital stays, disabilities, and, too often, premature death.Recently, the first Canadian study estimated 7.5% of those hospitalized suffer an adverse event, and that almost 40% of those were avoidable. Between 9,000 and […]