Canadians value their health care coverage, however their provincial health plan doesn't cover everything. This makes health and dental benefits the cornerstones of any group benefit plan.

With the rising cost of health care and a very competitive labour market, health plans are taking on a renewed importance. The success of any benefit plan depends on whether it meets the goals for which it was created. There are a lot of things to consider when designing a benefit plan that meets your business needs.

We partner with you to understand your organization's needs, goals and budget, and then work with you to customize a cost-effective benefit solution ideal for your workplace and your employees.

We offer plan design flexibility that enables employers to manage their costs while providing health coverage relevant to their employee's needs. There are a variety of options to choose from, basic health and dental coverage to specialty benefits.

Extended Health Care

There are varieties of options you can customize in your health plan. Your choose how much the plan pays, any deductible amounts, as well as any life time and/or calendar year limits that should be applied to benefits. Here are some of our benefit options:

• Prescription drug coverage (including our BLUEnet® pay direct drug card)
• Hospital and nursing services
• Ambulance services
• Dental accident
• Vision care
• Psychology benefits
• Paramedical Services (Chiropractors, massage therapists, physiotherapists etc.)
• Medical equipment and supplies (crutches, hearing aids, custom orthotics, orthopedic equipment, prosthetics, oxygen, diabetic supplies, etc.)
• Out-of-Country travel coverage (while traveling for vacation or business)
• Medical travel (when an employee is referred by a physician for treatment within Canada)

In addition to core extended health coverage, there are many specialty benefits options available, as well as dental and a complete range of life and disability benefits available to help you design a well-rounded benefit program that is right for your organization.

Managing health care costs

We're all concerned about rising health costs. We can help you design extended health care plan options that can help manage your costs. Traditional strategies such as higher deductibles, lower co-insurance and reduced lifetime maximums have the greatest impact on rates. We'll work with you using these and other approaches to ensure your plan is cost-effective.

Dental Care

Your employees know the value of a dental plan. They understand seeing their dentist regularly is an important part of maintaining good overall health, but without a dental plan regular visits can be expensive. A basic checkup can easily cost over $100 per person making regular dental care difficult to include as part of your health routine. However, ignoring your dental health now can lead even more expensive dental care later and in extreme cases, other health problems.

Our focus is plan flexibility, sensible cost management and responsive service and that makes us the choice of thousands of employers when it comes to dental coverage. You can select any or all three categories of dental coverage from Basic, Major and/or Orthodontic services. You choose your deductible amount and how much the plan pays for each category. You also can also choose to include unlimited coverage or lifetime and/or calendar year maximums.

Basic Preventative and Restorative Services

Basic dental covers services for the basic care and maintenance of teeth including procedures to restore teeth to natural and normal function. Eligible expenses include:

• Recall Examinations
• Diagnostic expenses (such as exams and x-rays)
• Preventive treatments (such as cleaning and polishing)
• Restorative treatments (such as fillings)
• Endodontics (including root canal therapy)
• Periodontics (treatment of the bones and gums)
• Prosthetic repairs (such as denture repairs)
• Oral surgery (such as tooth extractions)

Major Restorative Services

Major dental covers major restorations or replacement of missing teeth, or the reconstruction of teeth where basic restorative methods cannot be used satisfactorily (includes crowns, bridges and dentures).

Orthodontic Services

Orthodontic services cover expenses including ortho-exams, x-rays, diagnostic radiographs, casts, braces and retainers. In addition to the reimbursement options mentioned above (available across each category), you can choose to make orthodontic coverage available to dependent children only or to children and adults.