Mike Sullivan, RPh, BSP, MBA: Why Group Insurance Plans Hold the Key to Revolutionizing the Treatment of Mental Illness

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Despite Canadian group insurance plans managing upwards of 35 billion dollars a year, mental health clinicians frequently experience significant frustration with respect to accessing the funds required to effectively treat their clients - especially those with more severe presentations.  Co-founder of Cubic Health Inc., Mr. Mike Sullivan RPh, BSP, MBA joins Dr. Pete Kelly, C.Psych for an in-depth discussion of how innovations in the management and allocation of funds held in large self-funded insurance plans could hold the key to revolutionizing the treatment of mental illness.  In this fascinating discussion, Mike and Pete discuss the market gaps that led to the development of Cubic Health, the basic organization and components of the insurance industry in Canada, Mike's observations around where the insurance industry has stagnated, especially around the provision of mental health services, the use of analytics in analyzing and optimizing the provision of insurance benefits, trends in psychotropic medication in Canada, innovations in large group plans that could free up millions in financial resources for the effective treatment of mental illness, the responsibilities of clinicians within the insurance system to foster innovation, and finally, consideration of dynamics around short and long-term disability with respect to mental illness.  Mike also shares personal reflections on the stressors (and opportunities) of running a growing business, observations on leadership and some of his favourite books related to leadership, interpersonal effectiveness and growth.  

Mr. Mike Sullivan, co-founded Cubic Heath Inc. in 2003 in an era when start-ups venturing into the mix of technology and healthcare, especially in the world of employee benefits, had limited access to capital. Fast forward 17 years later, there still is not another company in Canada in Cubic’s space, which for those of us concerned with mental health is concerning because it underlines how slow to change the group insurance industry has been traditionally, although as we will discuss, things are really beginning to change.  Cubic has built a proprietary clinical and analytics infrastructure focused on making employee health benefit plans more efficient and sustainable. Cubic's focus as an independent benefit plan analytics and clinical solutions company is the intersection of Mike’s background as a Pharmacist and his post-graduate studies in Finance. Cubic has evolved into the largest clinical team in the employee benefits industry in Canada, supported by a team of talented Data Scientists, Business Intelligence experts, Developers and Information Systems professionals. Cubic’s clients are primarily large single- and multi-employer benefit plans ranging size from 500 to 650,000 employee lives.   A frequent speaker across North America on benefit plan design and management, Mike has also appeared on CBC, BNN, and in the Globe & Mail. He is a regular columnist for Benefits Canada magazine and serves as an Adjunct Professor at the University of Toronto.

www.cubichealth.ca