It’s finally summertime! While many are excited for the increasingly warmer weather coming our way, the benefits industry is excited for the annual report covering the top employee benefits providers from the previous year.

Here are a few important takeaways from 2021’s report to note.

The merger of SSQ and La Capitale made headline news

La Capitale and SSQ Insurance, two Quebec-based mutuals merged to form Beneva, with the deal closing July 1, 2020. By merging to form Beneva, SSQ and La Capitale is Canada’s largest mutual, if you count both life and health and property and casualty premiums. The two companies coming together positions Beneva as a major player in the industry and in the job market with more than 5,000 employees.

Digital health and personalized plans are taking over

Benefits will become much more dynamic, agile, flexible, relevant and responsive to individual needs, priorities and circumstances. Adding virtual care to benefits plans help reduce employee stress and eliminates the need to take time off work to visit an in-person clinic. According to Benefits Canada, the next decade will build on pushing group benefits plans into the era of hyper-personalization, thanks to new technologies like big data, predictive analytics and artificial intelligence. The customized experience is a major theme that all the top providers have been pushing for as we come to the other side of the global health crisis.

The increased costs of goods impacts everyone

The entire country is concerned with inflation and rising costs, which means dental patients are too. A box of dental gloves went from $20 to $100 – a cost that is passed on to the patient. A key contributor to overhead costs for dentists is the “increasing and extensive regulatory requirements, like infection control.” The costs of everyday dental supplies going up because clinics have been faced with higher fees, and lower revenue. 

Take a look at the numbers from 2021