Empire Life has some great news regarding premium reduction for dental and extended health benefits. From Empire Life website:

Premium reduction for dental and extended health benefits

These continue to be extremely challenging times for Canadians. This is particularly true for small and medium-sized businesses, who are facing immense pressures.

With dental offices and many extended health care providers closed, we have seen a reduction in claims for these types of services. Generally speaking, plan members are only accessing emergency treatments and some virtual services.  As a result, we are providing a premium reduction for the month of April, as described below. This will provide additional business relief to plan sponsors and assist with cash flow. 

Premium reduction details

·        50% reduction on April’s dental benefit premium

·        10% reduction on April’s extended health benefit premium  

Additional information

·        The April premium reductions will be automatically applied as a credit on the June billing statement. The group policy needs to be in-force when the premium credit is applied. For greater clarity, the premium reduction can only be refunded via a credit applied on premiums owed under a group policy. 

·        Plan members remain fully covered for their dental and extended health benefits in accordance with the terms of their plan.

·        As circumstances around the pandemic shift daily, we will continue to review dental and extended health benefit claims activity in May, as well as by region, and make a determination on premium reductions for future months.

·        Premium credits will not impact advisor commissions.

·        The premium credit does not apply to any benefits on an Administrative Services Only basis or related Stop Loss benefit coverage.

·        The 10% extended health benefit premium reduction only applies to extended health benefits that include paramedical coverage.

 Questions

We will send a communication out to sponsors tomorrow. We are grateful for your ongoing support and business—and together we will get through this unprecedented period. We are putting together an FAQ to provide additional detail. For any questions please contact your Account Executive or Account Manager.”