Dear Subscriber,
I'm just back from 3 weeks away in Italy, for both a vacation, and my son Matt's wedding and I'd like to share a few things I learned. This is not meant as bragging, but sharing how I realized a well laid foundation can pay off with dividends.
As most of you know (and anyone that's read my book), my goal is to try and educate clients so they need me for the really unusual/big stuff. I gave up trying to make them reliant and needing me for everything, and instead changed to empowering them to be self sufficient and choosing to work with me.
Most clients knew I was going to be away, but I also I changed my website, voicemail and e-mail responder to ensure those that reached out knew it as well. I checked e-mails every few days (for emergencies), but only picked up voicemail messages and went online once per week. I've never felt so positively disconnected in 25 years with Mainstay.
In that 3 week period I had 3 YES, THREE voicemail messages (2 from CGIB members and one from a client saying "never mind" :-). I had over 500 e-mails, but most were just FYI's, or clients asking a question, then saying they'd resolve the issue when they got the auto responder. I was caught up on everything within 2 days after returning.
My learnings include: - My clients are great and I've done a good job teaching them.
- I create my "busyness". I make calls and send e-mails to clients to check in and follow up on things. They then respond. No outbound calls, none inbound.
- Clients are supportive of us us being away and getting recharged. We need to communicate so it's not a surprise, but it's great how they get into it.
- The world will NOT fall apart if I step away for a bit. This is a bit of my control freak side coming out that thinks i'm always needed, but now I'm okay not being as well.
- I'm more productive after being away.
Take what you will from this, but my takeaway is... great clients come from - good education + respect and trust in each other + open & honest communications. Pick your clients well, treat them great and they will pick you, and treat you great.
No more vacations for me for a while but the next 5 months looks like lots of educational events across the country. I hope to see/meet many of you in my travels.
Dave |
|
OUR EVENTS
CGIB COFFEE CHATS
Coffee chats are like a virtual breakfast. Log in, ask questions, share problems, seek solutions and talk about what's on your mind. Best done from a computer, with a camera and a microphone. No CE credits, but also no cost, just show up.
Thursday June 16th @ 2pm (EST)
Tuesday June 28th @ 2pm (EST) - SPECIAL EVENT The Challenges of starting/growing your business Tuesday July 19th @ 2pm (EST)
Thursday August 4th @ 2pm (EST) ____________________________________________________________
BREAKFAST MEETINGS CGIB no longer runs the breakfast meetings, but supports the initiative of the volunteers that do.
Please find the details for your closest location below. Ajax, Cambridge, Edmonton, London, Markham, Oakville, St Catherines, Toronto, Vancouver Island, Windsor or the Virtual National Meeting
Virtual meetings through Zoom may be utilized until COVID19 passes. Please contact the event champions to be added to their lists, and receive more info.
____________________________________________________________ Upcoming CGIB Events:
Hold the date for these upcoming events, and watch for details HERE.
Toronto Seminar - Wednesday October 5th - FULL-DAY Agenda to be determined
Calgary Seminar - Tuesday October 18th Plan Administration Checklist & Employment Law Workshop - TBC
Vancouver Seminar - Thursday October 20th Plan Administration Checklist & Employment Law Workshop - TBC |
|
GET ON SLACK
The CGIB SLACK channel is a great place to pose questions, share info and learn a ton from your fellow members. The info and discussions that are posted there are unlike anywhere in the industry. Sadly, about 15% of CGIB members are still missing out on all the info being shared. Others have not taken a look at all the documents, videos and information available in MEMBERS ONLY to make their life easier.
NOTE TO ALL SLACK USERS: We now have 40+ channels in Slack to handle different topics. Please take a moment to add these channels to your menu. To do so, just click on the + next to Channels on the top left. Browse the channels and then click JOIN to add each of them. By doing so you won’t be missing some really great info. |
|
SUGGESTED READING
We think the information contained below is of great value and encourage you to read the articles and check out the events that interest you. In most cases, these articles and events are not run by CGIB, so please contact the organizers for more information. We take no responsibility for the websites, events, organizations or their content. |
|
Suggested Reading:
____________________________________________________________
ASO OFFERS COST SAVINGS There is money to be saved and reinvested into benefit plans by moving to an administrative services only (ASO) arrangement, says Jamil Jamal, a benefits consultant and practice leader at People Corporation, in the National Payroll Institute ‘Conference 2022’ session ‘Employee Benefits in a Pandemic: Past, Present, and Future, The Pivot to Virtual Health.’ He said the claims experience during the pandemic magnified the benefits of ASO benefit programs. While group insurers did offer premium reductions for dental and extended health care shortly after the pandemic started in 2020, the claims experience showed these dropped to almost nothing and this benefit reduction merely reflected that. With an ASO arrangement, the employer pays for most benefits and insures things like life insurance and long-term disability which have small premiums because they are less utilized. With a traditional fully insured plan, the premium is based on the claims experience. About70 per cent of the premium cost is based on claims. The remainder is for reserves, profit, commissions, inflation, risk charge, and administration. However, some of these charges are outdated. The reserve charge is a leftover from the 1970s when claims could take up to six months because they were mailed in and the reserve covered the insurer if the client changed plans. He said that charge is no longer relevant. Another issue for fully insured plans is premiums will go up if the claims experience does. However, premiums are only reduced if they fall 10 per cent below the target loss ratio. ASO plans eliminate this type of charge along with others like the reserve fee and the built-in profit. And with proper insurance protection these plans can accommodate stresses like high cost drugs, he said.
HIGH-COST DRUGS MAY BE NORM Analysis of the drug pipeline suggests that high-cost drugs may be the norm for new drug launches, says an Eckler ‘GroupNews.’ Of the 8,500 new medicines under clinical evaluation globally in 2021, more than one third of those in late stages of evaluation were indicated to treat rare diseases. Privately sponsored benefit plans will most likely continue to face substantial pressures from rising drug costs, particularly due to increased prevalence of high-cost drugs. Reports by the Patented Medicine Prices Review Board (PMPRB) show the approval of new drugs appears to be trending slightly upwards. On average, 45 new medicines were approved each year from 2015 to 2020 with 47 new medicines approved in 2019 and 50 in 2020. Many of these new drugs were for high-cost medications with almost half of those approved in 2019 having high treatment costs. Orphan and oncology drugs made up a significant portion of new drug approvals. While orphan drugs account for 58 per cent of new approvals, oncology drugs increased to 34 per cent, the highest share since 2015. Of these new medicines, 75 per cent had treatment costs exceeding $10,000 per year or $5,000 per 28-day course. They also show Canada ranks competitively in getting these newly approved medicines into the market, as a considerable portion of the new drugs approved internationally between 2015 and 2019 had sales in Canada by the end of 2020
EMPLOYEES CAN CONTROL HOURS AFTER WORK With the COVID-19 pandemic lockdowns which started in March 2020, more employees found themselves working from home. But, they also found themselves working longer, with one study suggesting employees working from home logged in 10 per cent more hours. This extra working time came with increased worker stress and burnout, says Lidia Pawlikowski, a health consultant from HUB International. As a result, Ontario has enacted the ‘The Working for Workers Act,’ which requires employers with more than 25 employees to have written policies that give employees more control over their after-hours work. It takes effect June 2 and in the article ‘The Right to Disconnect: Developing A Policy For Ontario Bill 27,’ she offers some guidelines on what a policy should say.
WEIGHT MANAGEMENT DRUGS POISED FOR GROWTH Weight management drugs are poised for strong growth, says a Telus Health ‘Benefits Hub.’ Its ‘2022 Category Watch: Impact of the Pandemic’ shows utilization of a weight management drug, Saxenda, has more than doubled over the last five years. In 2004, the Canadian Medical Association formally stated that obesity is a chronic disease and a leading cause of many other chronic conditions, including high blood pressure, high cholesterol, type 2 diabetes, depression, arthritis, and certain cancers. In 2020, Obesity Canada released the first set of national clinical practice guidelines for obesity management. The introductory guideline emphasizes that while “medical nutrition therapy,” or healthy eating, is the foundation for treatment, “it should not be used in isolation…[but] in combination with other interventions (psychological, pharmacologic, surgical).” The guidelines also specify that pharmacotherapy should be considered when behaviour change alone is ineffective or insufficient. In 2018, 26.8 per cent of Canadian adults could be described as having obesity and an additional 36.3 per cent were overweight. However, at the end of 2021, just over a quarter of one per cent of all claimants had submitted a claim for a weight management drug. While this number is minuscule, growth within the category is strong: the number of claimants grew by 19.9 per cent in 2019 and 39.6 per cent in 2018. While the pandemic did have an impact, slowing growth to 5.5 per cent in 2020, but it did not have a lasting effect: the number of claimants jumped by 46 per cent in 2021. That level of growth is expected to continue, driven by the drugs’ proven effect on weight loss, the expected launch of another drug this year, the growing number of private plans that are opting to provide coverage, and the potential patient population.
DRUG PLAN MANAGEMENT MATTERS MORE THAN EVER Proactive drug plan management matters more than ever, says Martin Chung, assistant vice-president, strategic health management, at Equitable Life of Canada. During the ‘Drug Trend Panel’ at ‘CPBI Forum 2022’ with Suzanne Lepage, a private health plan strategist, and Anar Dossa, director of pharmacy services at Pacific Blue Cross, he said there has been a shift in disease trends since COVID-19. This “double whammy” shows claims for diabetes, attention deficit disorder in adults, and cancer are growing while as the pandemic diminished claims for asthma and cholesterol drugs started to exceed historic norms. A “perfect storm” is unfolding as something happened around October of last year where there was an acceleration of all the variables around claims costs. This means plan sponsors “need to be aware and responsible from a risk and financial perspective,” said Chung. Lepage discussed the state of drugs for rare disease in Canada. These impact one in 12 Canadians, more than AIDS and cancer combined. Usually genetically based, 85 per cent are inherited and 85 to 90 per cent are considered serious of life-threatening. They disproportionately affect the younger generation. Drugs for rare diseases may cost $100,000 to $2 million for life. In 2020, insurers spent $650 million on these drugs. Scientific understanding and clinical expertise is limited and fragmented with 94 per cent of those with a rare disease not having a treatment available. Drug development is very challenging because it is hard to do clinical trials with only a handful of people and, since these may be life and death situations, it may even be unethical to have these clinical trials. The U.S. Orphan Drug Act in 1983 changed things. There are now over 500 approved products and patients around world with rare diseases are benefitting from this. However, in Canada, it is a postal code lottery with disparity and inequities because of the lack of availability of experts, range of treatments, and the ability to get correct diagnosis. However, private drug plan claim costs for drugs costing more than $100,000 a year represent only 1.8 per cent of the cost which is a small portion of the overall cost of drug plans. Dossa said when adding drugs to a plan formulary, sponsors need to determine if they are better than existing drugs. Of drugs approved by Heath Canada over the last decade, only five per cent were an improvement over existing therapies. Another example is blood testing strips for diabetes. Studies in recent years show no real improvement in blood sugar levels among type 2 diabetics who test at least seven times a week. She said this shows evidence informed studies should be done earlier and stakeholders need education.
FLEXIBLE WORKING KEY BENEFIT Looking ahead three years, flexible working and employee wellbeing are key future benefits for employers, says Jean Paul Augeri, managing director at Milliman. With Daniel Drolet, senior partner at Normandin Beaudry, he outlined some of the findings from the MBWL International and Normandin Beaudry ‘2022 Global Benefits Priorities Survey.’ In a tight talent market, he said employers are handling return to work carefully. Continuing to offer flexibility to employees, both in terms of the hours they work and where they do so, will be key as organizations transition to a hybrid working model going forward. Employee wellbeing is and will remain a key focus for global organizations. Drolet said, currently, the result from Canada show flexible work and healthcare/medical are rated the two most important benefits. However, over the next three years he expects mental and physical wellbeing will be the most important benefit followed by flexible work arrangements. Still, flexibility isn’t like offering a “cafeteria plan,” it is bringing flexibility into traditional plans so employees can find something that fits their needs whatever their age or gender. This makes data crucial now and in the coming years. It will need to be sliced and diced to understand what is happening, not to cut costs, but because control of these costs is important to reinvest in benefits plans.
EVIDENCE NEEDED ON RARE DISEASE DRUGS Real world evidence and data are needed to protect against high drug costs for rare diseases, says Chris Bonnett, principal consultant at H3 Consulting. Speaking at the ‘CPBI Forum 2022’ on ‘Make Better Decisions: Applying Real World Evidence in Health and Disability Plans’ with Daria O’Reilly, lead health economist at Telus Health, and Ned Pojskic, vice-president, pharmacy benefits management, at Green Shield Canada, he said rare diseases affect one in 2,000 Canadians. Many of those covered are young dependents as rare diseases are often diagnosed in childhood. However, their incidence is random and “you have no idea when one of those things is going to come and bite you,” he said. O’Reilly and Pojskic discussed the situation with these both before they are added to a formulary and after. For O’Reilly, the challenge when adding them to a formulary is the lack of real world evidence to identify the value for private benefit plans. As well, their cost effectiveness and impact on quality of life are difficult to determine because drug trials can only be based on a small number of people, there are safety concerns, trials are short-term, and findings are based on survey responses, not outcomes. What would help in decision-making is looking at comparative effects, long-term outcomes like survival rates, and what happens after trial ends as the goal is to reduce uncertainties and mitigate risk while identifying drugs that work, she said. While there is a need for real world data, said Pojskic, there is no control over biases and cause and effect cannot be determined. The quality of real world data varies depending on what is measured, the source of information, and how it was collected and recorded. One solution is collaboration between payers, providers, employers, and government. Preferred provider networks and health management organizations are well-positioned for collection of data. He also said prior authorization would not only help control the cost of these drugs to a plan, they present an opportunity to ask questions about their real world effectiveness and can be used to extract meaningful information. |
|
Smart is no longer memorization. It’s not worth much.
Smart is no longer access to information. Everyone has that.
Smart is: • Situational awareness • Clarity of goals • Good taste • Empathy for others • The ability to make decisions that further your goals
The good news is that smart is a choice, and smart is a skill.
My Take on Seths Post
Put another way...Let's substitute "cheap" for "smart". Lots of advisors say they are cheaper, but that is not enough (nor is smarter). You need to be aligned with clients, know what they need, and get them to the proper outcome to be successful. Smart and cheap is less important than the other things.
An "extra" Seth blog post
Of course you’re interesting. There’s something about what you’ve done, what you say, how you show up in the world that’s worthy of interest.
But that doesn’t mean that people are interested.
We each have a noise in our heads, an agenda and something urgent that’s grabbing our attention. And so, the amount of interest you receive (or don’t receive) has little to do with how interesting you are and a lot to do with how the people you seek to serve have organized their priorities long before you got there.
Put another way...make sure clients are interested in what you have to say, before they find you interesting. |
|
EDUCATIONAL EVENTS
ONLINE CE CREDITS
Looking for benefits dedicated online CE courses? Want to provide your admin and support staff with basic knowledge? Want to dig into something more detailed for your benefits/insurance business? Business Career College (BCC) has an extensive catalogue of online CE courses with a number of group benefits specific courses covering topics ranging from contractual concerns, plan designs, and underwriting requirements, to product specifics and integration with government benefits. Courses consist of narrated videos with short, online quizzes. The full catalogue includes over 60 courses, podcasts, and videos covering topics from the world of insurance, investments, financial planning, taxation, and ethics with a focus on technical content and real-world application. Courses are accredited for the maximum categories of credits and can include provincial Life and A&S credits, FP Canada, Advocis, and more! Use code CGIB on registration for your first three months free! |
|
June 22nd 2:00 PM EST – What to do with your clients US employees?
An overview of the growing US benefits space for Canadian companies looking to expand and properly navigate the extremely complex US market.
The session will cover how to provide a value-add to your companies expanding in the US and receive specialized expertise on where the market varies and how to properly benchmark your US employee package.
It’s important to have a partner is the US to expand your referral revenue and client base but also protect the existing business you have regarding the exposure and needs they may have un the US, covering the below areas: - How the HBS partnership works (The HBS Advantage) and grow your referral revenue
- Protect your current business from international competition
- US Benefits Overview and Benchmarking
- Benefits in Canada vs US comparison
- Cost Mitigation and proper funding to attract and retain the right employee talent
- Broker Case Study of a great advisor victory generating revenue in the US and Canada with the HBS team.
Registration link below: ___________________________________________________________ Wednesday June 29th at noon EST - Meeting details to follow.
Session: An Introduction To Managing Global Benefits This session is aimed at providing a starting block for advisors to start the conversation with HR professionals around managing global benefits. The session will cover the factors a company should consider when starting building out global benefits with a focus on the following themes; - Staying compliant
- Controlling Costs
- Managing colleagues expectations and curbing internal enthusiasm
- Implementing an appropriate strategy which will account for your business’ culture
- Creating a culturally aligned employee benefits program for a growing multinational workforce
Lewis Mosley - DIRECTOR Benefits Advisory Services Ltd Lewis is a Director and lead Global Consultant at Benefits Advisory Services Ltd. He has over 10 years’ experience working within the global employee benefits space, most of which have been spent advising North American multinationals on all aspects of their global benefits, from their first overseas hire’s benefit program in a new country to managing 30+ countries with merger & acquisition heritage. ___________________________________________________________
National Group Benefit Meetings! June 30th 2022 @12:00 EST - Sign up early, Space is limited Blake Waddell from Waddell Insurance and Lindsay Gibson from BBD, and Jay Nadler from Naviguide are pleased to announce the National Group Benefit Meetings! These have been run around the GTA, starting off with CGIB for over a decade and the loyal attendees find them to be way more valuable than any webinar they could attend.
To sign up (for free) please click the sign up below.
A little bit about the meetings: The National Benefits meeting is for plan advisors, TPA's, and insurers to meet once a quarter to network, meet your peers, share information and stay up to date with industry trends and news. Whether you are a seasoned vet, or a newbie to the industry this is worth 2 hours a quarter to increase your knowledge.
It will be held on the last workday of the month at 12:00pm EST. The first meeting will be a quick one hour introduction and if dialogue continues we can spill over. When you sign up, a day before the meeting you will be sent a Zoom link. Upon registering you will be asked to provide a topic to help form the agenda. This event does not contain any CE credits.
___________________________________________________________
BENEFIT PLAN CERTIFICATE OFFERED ___________________________________________________________
ClaimSecure is pleased to announce our 2022 eLearning series. Below is the schedule with the dates and times for the webinars.
We will be sending the registration links two weeks prior to each webinar.
We hope you will enjoy our 2022 eLearning series and we will look forward to your feedback. |
|
Need help? Have questions? Looking for something?
Reach out to CGIB - Dave Patriarche - dave@cgib.ca - 905-886-9203 |
|
|
