News

Supreme Court sides with government on federal pension surplus. Read the Coughlin Courier. (PDF 1.13 MB)– Read More

Membership in Coughlin & Associates Ltd.’s Preferred Provider Network (PPN) of pharmacies has grown by more than 10 per cent with the addition of almost 50 Sobeys, FreshCo and Foodland pharmacies to the network.The new pharmacies, which are oper...– Read More

Pfizer Canada Inc.’s patent on the top-selling erectile dysfunction drug Viagra is invalid, the Supreme Court of Canada has ruled. In a 7-0 decision, the Court said that Pfizer did not disclose sufficient information about the medication when it ap...– Read More

Effective January 1, 2013, a number of changes will be made to government benefit plan maximums. The changes include the following: The Yearly Maximum Pensionable Earnings (YMPE) for Canada Pension Plan (CPP) contributions will increase to $51,100, from...– Read More

Reports published in The Globe and Mail suggest that Canada is on the edge of signing a free trade agreement with the European Union.   According to that newspaper, to secure the agreement, Canada is prepared to harmonize its drug patent protection ...– Read More

Benefits cost pressures take a break. Read the Coughlin Courier. (PDF 1 MB)– Read More

Members of Canada’s House of Commons may get a taste of the pension cutbacks that may be in store for the public service in the near future. According to media reports, the Harper government is considering introducing legislation to make members of...– Read More

The Ontario Superior Court demonstrated that it is prepared to force the transfer of funds from a locked-in savings account (LIRA) when plan members renege on spousal support payments. The case involved a common-law couple whose relationship had dissolve...– Read More

After almost a century of increases, the life expectancy of less educated Americans is declining, according to a major study conducted by the University of Illinois at Chicago. According to a review of trends between the years 1990 and 2008, the life exp...– Read More

The federal government’s new pooled registered pension plans (PRPPs) are registered retirement savings plans (RRSPs) with “just a new coat of paint” and are unlikely to help low and middle income Canadians save for retirement, the C.D. H...– Read More

Will Canada’s MPs vote to cut their pensions? Read the Coughlin Courier. (PDF 1 MB)– Read More

More than half of employees with benefits coverage believe their employee benefits will continue after retirement, the 2012 edition of the Sanofi Canada Health Care Survey says. According to the latest Sanofi findings, 51 per cent of employees expect to ...– Read More

Public sector workers in British Columbia have lost a bid to continue to receive free medical and extended health benefits after retirement. The ruling by the British Columbia Court of Appeal settles a nine-year-old debate between the 27,000 members of t...– Read More

Long-term care is a "ticking time bomb" that may end up dominating the health care policy in Canada in the near future, according to the Canadian Life and Health Insurance Association (CLHIA). Just as pension funding has pushed its way to the front of th...– Read More

One-quarter of Americans age 12 to19 have diabetes or pre-diabetes, the medical journal Pediatrics reports. According to the May 21, 2012 issue of the journal, 23 per cent of adolescents now have the disease. That compares to nine per cent a decade ago. ...– Read More

Retirement shock coming: 51 per cent think they’ll have benefits. Read the Coughlin Courier. (PDF 998 KB)– Read More

Private drug plans waste between $12 billion to $14 billion per year in prescription drug claims according to the Express Scripts Canada 2011 Drug Trend Report. Defining the term “waste” as “spending more without improving health outcom...– Read More

Specialty drugs continue to drive up drug plan expenses, and will continue to do so past 2015, according to latest data released in Express Scripts Canada’s 2011 Drug Trend Report. According to the pharmacy benefit manager, while specialty drugs co...– Read More

The older and richer you are, the less likely you are prepared for retirement, a report by the McKinsey & Co. management consulting firm suggests. In its study of the potential of Canadians to maintain their current lifestyles after retirement, the f...– Read More

Solvency ratios of the 400 defined benefit pension plans regulated by the Office of the Superintendent of Financial Institutions (OSFI) continue to track at five-year lows, the financial regulator reports. As of December 2011, solvency ratios averaged 0....– Read More