“‘They Deserve It’: In Foster Homes, Veterans Are Cared For Like Family”

“‘They Deserve It’: In Foster Homes, Veterans Are Cared For Like Family,” by Patricia Kime, Kaiser Health News “The $20.7 million-per-year program provides housing and care for more than 1,000 veterans in 42 states and Puerto Rico, serving as an alternative to nursing home care for those who cannot live safely on their own. Veterans pay their caregivers $1,500 to $3,000 a month, depending on location, saving the government about $10,000 a month in nursing home care. It has been difficult to scale up, though, because the VA accepts only foster homes that meet strict qualifications.” LTC Comment (from Stephen
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Categories: Clippings, Industry News, and Long-Term Care.

“Short-Term Care Insurance’ Faces a Name Fight”

“‘Short-Term Care Insurance’ Faces a Name Fight,” by Allison Bell, ThinkAdvisor “Insurance industry players disagree about what regulators should call the product now (often) known as ‘short-term care insurance.’ Agents and brokers use the term to refer to products that cover nursing home care, home health care and other forms of non-acute health care for periods of less than 12 months. Some insurers stick with that product name. Others call the product ‘recovery care insurance” or “convalescent care insurance.’ State insurance regulators at the Senior Issues Task Force have dubbed the product ‘limited long-term care insurance’ in drafts of a model law
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Categories: Clippings, Industry News, and Long-Term Care.

“Clues to Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s From How You Use Your Computer”

“Clues to Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s From How You Use Your Computer,” by Sumathi Reddy, Wall Street Journal “How you type or move a mouse could help detect whether you have a serious disease like Parkinson’s. A Duke University doctor working with Microsoft researchers sifted through data on the physical movements of computer users that came from millions of internet searches. Their study found links between some behaviors—such as tremors when using a mouse, repeat queries and average scrolling velocity—and Parkinson’s disease. They used artificial intelligence, or a computer analysis, to identify which of the metrics separated a control group from
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Categories: Clippings, Industry News, and Long-Term Care.

“What Explains The Widening Gap In Retirement Ages By Education?”

“What Explains The Widening Gap In Retirement Ages By Education?,” by Matthew S. Rutledge, Center for Retirement Research at Boston College “The gains in the average retirement age since the 1990s have been driven almost solely by those with more education. Today, male college graduates retire three years later than high school graduates (see Figure 1). While the story is more complicated for women because of the dramatic change in their labor force participation over the latter half of the 20th cen­tury, the overall message is similar: like men, the gap in average retirement ages by education has grown substantially.”
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Categories: Clippings, Industry News, and Long-Term Care.

Check Out the LTC Prescreen Flyer

Many factors go into evaluating long-term care insurance applications and whether people are eligible for coverage. We’ve created a prescreen flyer you can discuss with your clients before determining whether to proceed with completing an application. The LTCi prescreen flyer includes a partial list of the kinds of conditions and situations that we consider when reviewing applications and underwriting coverage. The list of pre-submission underwriting considerations and disqualifying conditions can help determine the impact on your client’s insurability. The LTC Prescreen flyer is available to order on all usual ordering systems. To review the flyer, please click here or click
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Categories: Industry News, Long-Term Care, and Mutual of Omaha (& Affiliates).

Medicare Supplement News – Omaha Family of Companies

Upcoming Rate Adjustments Please view the upcoming rate adjustments for AL, IA, IL, IN, KY, MO, NV, OH, OR, TX, WA and WI. •  Modernized Rate Adjustment — UW- OH supp/SELECT, TX supp/SELECT; UMS- WA; MoO- AL; OIC- MO •  In-force Rate Adjustments — UMS- AL, MOO – IL, NV; OIC- KY, OH (supp/SELECT) •  Plan N Rate Adjustment — UMS – IA, IL, IN •  Standardized Rate Adjustment — MoO- NV, OR, UW- IN; (Sept) UMS- WI   One Company/One State – KY and NJ Effective July 1, 2018 only applications underwritten by United World Life Insurance Company in
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Categories: Industry News, Medicare Supp./Adv., and Mutual of Omaha (& Affiliates).

In-Force Rate Action Announcement: South Dakota (PCS I, PCS II, Choice 1)

As part of the strategy for our long-term care insurance business, we continue pursuing initiatives to improve the risk and profitability profile of our business, including premium increases on our in-force policies, as needed. South Dakota has now allowed the following increase: South Dakota Product Series Increase Percentage for Policies with Limited Benefit Periods Increase Percentage for Policies with Lifetime Benefit Periods PCS I 55% 72% PCS II 55% 72% Choice 1 55% 72%       This rate increase applies to Non-AARP, non-partnership policies only. Communications Timeline Servicing agents will receive a list of their impacted policyholders in this
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Categories: Genworth, Industry News, and Long-Term Care.

Improved Web & Desktop Version of NGL Rate Calculator

In order to provide a more consistent and user-friendly experience, updated versions of the NGL Rate Calculator for Web and Desktop were made available the evening of May 31. The desktop version had changed, so users must login to the agent website to download the newest version, as the old version will be retired. Once on the agent website, please use the “Download Rate Calculator” quick link on the right hand side of the home page, and follow instructions for your computer type. Users will still access the web version of the rate calculator by using either the “Calculate a
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Categories: Industry News, Long-Term Care, and National Guardian Life.

Contact Center Agent Service improving hold times

Recently, we have seen an increase in call center hold times due to higher than expected call volumes in both March and April. We’ve instituted a number of changes including the cross training of existing call center specialists and the hiring of additional specialists to solve this issue. Our average hold times have been improving weekly, and we will continue to improve hold times until we get back to our previous service level standards, which will be later this month. We appreciate your patience and ongoing support as we fix this service shortfall. If you have any questions or additional
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Categories: Industry News, Long-Term Care, and Transamerica.

Aetna: Keep new Medicare numbers confidential

As a reminder, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) recently began mailing new Medicare ID cards to beneficiaries and this will continue through April 2019. The new cards have a unique Medicare identification number, also called a Medicare Beneficiary Identifier (MBI). You can review our past communication here. Please note: In most cases, Aetna will receive the new Medicare numbers from CMS before our existing members get their new Medicare card and number in the mail. For example, the new Medicare numbers now appear in Individual Medicare enrollment and commission-related reports on Producer World for all existing membership.
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Categories: Aetna, Industry News, and Medicare Supp./Adv..