“Economic Impact: The Senior Living Effect White Paper,” Argentum “Senior living has an economic impact of almost a quarter of a trillion dollars—greater than auto manufacturing and air transportation. That and other enlightening data is part of this visually rich, 12-page white paper on senior living as a major economic driver, affecting multiple industries including restaurants, hotels and motels, real estate, and construction. In this white paper, you’ll get access to economic impact highlights from a study commissioned by Argentum and performed by Tripp Umbach. These include: • Infographics on senior living economic impact nationally and in five significant states;
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“Fitch: Some LTCI Issuers Look a Lot Better Than Others,” by Allison Bell, ThinkAdvisor “Analysts at Fitch Ratings have been saying, in public, for more than a year, that U.S. long-term care insurance (LTCI) issuers should post more LTCI performance data. … Now, Anthony Beato and other analysts at Fitch have come out with a new report of their own on the financial wellness of the LTCI companies they rate. The analysts look at GE along with another reinsurer, Wilton Re Ltd., and 14 other companies. The 14 other companies are known primarily as direct writers of LTCI coverage but
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“Immigrant sponsors’ assets will factor into Medicaid eligibility,” by Susannah Luthi, Modern Healthcare “The CMS on Friday told states they can count the assets and income of the sponsors of legal immigrants when they’re determining whether the immigrants qualify for Medicaid or Children’s Health Insurance coverage. If states don’t like the methodologies suggested by the CMS, they can come up with an alternative but will need agency approval. The guidance is part of the broader White House immigration policy strategy and tighter restrictions on legal immigrants who apply for public benefit programs.” LTC Comment (from Stephen A. Moses, President, Center
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“5 Things for Agents to Know About the Big New Accounting Thing,” by Allison Bell, ThinkAdvisor “The Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB) says it wants to postpone the compliance deadlines for a major new batch of accounting rules. The move could affect financial reports for life insurance policies, annuities, long-term disability insurance policies, long-term care insurance policies, and many other ‘long-duration insurance contracts.’ … But, over the next few years, what happens to FASB Accounting Standards Update 2018-12 could have effects on life insurance agents and brokers that will last a lot longer than the effects of this weekend’s weather.
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“Money, Data and Backup Plans: Why In-Home Medicare Advantage Benefits Are Rolling Out Slowly,” by Bailey Bryant, Home Health Care News “Despite Medicare Advantage (MA) plans being recently allowed to cover a wide variety of in-home services and supports, insurers have been slow to roll out new supplemental benefits. In 2019, only 3% of Medicare Advantage plans offered in-home care services, according to AARP. Some think the tides will turn in 2020 — but even then, roadblocks remain, the biggest being finances, data and implementation. ” LTC Comment (from Stephen A. Moses, President, Center for Long-Term Care Reform): As predicted, this new benefit is
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“Long-Term Care Insurance Policyholders Ask for Relief,” by Allison Bell, ThinkAdvisor “The Maryland Insurance Administration attracted just two policyholders today to a public hearing on three long-term care insurance (LTCI) issuers’ rate increase requests. The issuers making the requests were John Hancock Life Insurance Company, Prudential Insurance Company of America and UNUM Life Insurance Company of America. The Maryland Insurance Administration streamed the hearing live on the web, through its Facebook page.” LTC Comment (from Stephen A. Moses, President, Center for Long-Term Care Reform): Maybe this isn’t quite the burning worry most hyperventilating media stories make it out to be.
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“GE Responds to Markopolos LTCI Reinsurance Reserving Criticisms,” by Allison Bell, ThinkAdvisor “A General Electric Company executive, Steve Winoker, has posted a detailed rebuttal of allegations that the company has misled investors about the reserves at its long-term care insurance (LTCI) reinsurance business. … A copy of the note is available here. … Winoker writes in his note that GE believes that its current LTCI reinsurance reserves are well-supported for the company’s portfolio characteristics.”     LTC Comment (from Stephen A. Moses, President, Center for Long-Term Care Reform): The other side of the story.  
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“The looming crisis in long-term care,” by Sam Baker, Axios “How it works: Medicare doesn’t cover most long-term care services. The market for private long-term care insurance is tiny and fraught with failure. That leaves three real options: Be rich enough to pay out of pocket, be poor enough to qualify for Medicaid, or lean on family and volunteer caregivers. In many cases, seniors must do all three: They begin paying out of pocket, then quickly spend everything they have, making them Medicaid-eligible, but still rely on family members for at least some additional help.”   LTC Comment (from Stephen A.
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“Training Webcast: Long-term Care Insurance with Expert Bonnie Burns,” Administration for Community Living “On August 22, 2019, from 2:00 – 3:30 p.m. Eastern Time, the SHIP National Technical Assistance Center (SHIP TA Center) will present a national livestream training webcast with nationally known long-term care insurance expert Bonnie Burns.”   LTC Comment (from Stephen A. Moses, President, Center for Long-Term Care Reform): How will Bonnie Burns present LTCI? Tune in to find out.  
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“5 Markopolos GE Long-Term Care Insurance Report Highlights, for Agents,” by Allison Bell, ThinkAdvisor “Here are five more things to know about the Markopolos report, for agents. GE is blasting Markopolos’s and conclusions. Markopolos himself says he has a strong financial incentive to be hard on GE. Markopolos says he thinks Unum Group and Prudential Financial Inc. have done a good job with their LTCI blocks. Markopolos also has nice things to say about Genworth and CNO. Markopolos says Allianz and MassMutual made great reinsurance deals.”   LTC Comment (from Stephen A. Moses, President, Center for Long-Term Care Reform): More on
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