“Scamming Grandma: Financial Abuse of Seniors Hits Record,” by Yuka Hayashi, Wall Street Journal “U.S. banks reported a record 24,454 suspected cases of elder financial abuse to the Treasury Department last year, more than double the amount five years earlier, according to government data. … Meanwhile, people over 50 represent one-third of the population but account for 61% of bank accounts and 70% of bank deposits, according to 2017 research by the American Bankers Association. … Bankers and senior-citizen advocates say many cases of elder abuse involve family members or caregivers. … Bankers attribute an increase in social media use by older Americans for
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“New Study Says Americans Flocking To Urgent Care Instead Of Their Primary Doctor Due To Convenience,” by Dr. Max Gomez, CBS “More and more people are choosing urgent care over their primary doctor. It’s a growing trend among millions of Americans that could be changing the health care industry, CBS2’s Dr. Max Gomez reported Tuesday. … Urgent care clinics can ease demand in crowded and expensive hospital emergency rooms. Plus, the clinics often refer complicated patients to the main hospital. Both are reasons many urgent care clinics are actually owned by major hospital systems.” LTC Comment (from Stephen A. Moses, President,
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“CMS announces new ‘innovations’ to Medicare Advantage plans,” by Marty Stempniak, McKnight’s LTC News “The federal government announced a broad array of changes to Medicare Advantage plans last week in hopes it will further pressure providers to up their game in caring for seniors. Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services officials said Friday that those ‘innovations’ will include everything from customizing plans based on beneficiaries’ chronic conditions and socioeconomic status to increasing access to telehealth services. It also wants to up plans’ incentives for seniors to improve their health.” LTC Comment (from Stephen A. Moses, President, Center for Long-Term Care
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“5 Things Actuaries Are Saying About Death Now,” by Allison Bell, ThinkAdvisor “Life insurers use their own private mortality data, and general life insurance industry mortality data, to design and price life insurance policies and annuities. Some of the top mortality experts in the world are the life insurance and pension actuaries who work on Society of Actuary (SOA) mortality analyses. Three SOA actuaries— R. Jerome Holman, Cynthia MacDonald and Peter Miller — recently released a new mortality report, ‘U.S. Population Mortality Observers: Updated with 2017 Experience.’ … Here’s a look at five things that happened to U.S. mortality in 2017,
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“Medicare Advantage industry sees slower growth for 2019,” by Shelby Livingston, Modern Healthcare “Medicare Advantage insurers added 1.4 million members to their rosters for 2019 coverage, as they looked to grow membership in a market known for being politically safe and predictably lucrative. But Advantage membership is growing at slower pace compared with previous years.” LTC Comment (from Stephen A. Moses, President, Center for Long-Term Care Reform): “[A] market known for being politically safe and predictably lucrative” sounds too much like crony socialism. So with everything going for it—beneficial policy, political support, consumer preference and better profit margins—why is MA
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“New York Approves China Oceanwide-Genworth Deal,” by Allison Bell, ThinkAdvisor “Genworth Financial Inc. announced Monday that it has cleared a major obstacle toward selling itself to China Oceanwide Holdings Group Co. Ltd. The Richmond, Virginia-based insurer said it has received approval from the New York State Department of Financial Services to transfer control of a New York-based subsidiary, Genworth Life Insurance Company of New York, to China Oceanwide. Now that New York state regulators have approved the deal, ‘the transaction has received all required U.S. insurance regulatory approvals,’ Genworth said in the approval announcement.” LTC Comment (from Stephen A. Moses, President,
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“Long-Term Care Insurance Claims Rise 12%: AALTCI,” by Allison Bell, ThinkAdvisor “Long-term care insurance (LTCI) providers paid about $10.3 billion in U.S. long-term care claims in 2018, or about 12% more than they paid in 2016, according to the American Association for Long Term Care Insurance. … The number of people on claim rose 2.7% between 2017 and 2018, to 303,000, according to AALTCI. The average claim per person on claim increased 9%, to an average of about $34,000 per person, according to ThinkAdvisor calculations based on AALTCI data. In 2017, the claim total was 6.4% higher than in 2016, the number of people on claim was
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“When Older American Households Fall Short,” by Darwin Bayston, ThinkAdvisor “After reviewing data from all five of these surveys, the research team published a report finding that roughly half of older American households are likely to face a shortfall in the retirement income they will need. The percentage of retirees at risk ranged from 42% to 60%, depending on the income definitions applied, in the various statistical models used by researchers. … The research team’s report provides new scientific evidence that financial advisors would be well-served to consider and should prompt all of us to challenge ourselves with this question:
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“Costs of New Long-Term Care Insurance Policies Vary Considerably,” ElderLawAnswers.com “We’ve all heard the advice ‘It pays to shop around,’ but this has never been more true than with the current market for long-term care insurance.  According to the latest industry figures, the spread between the lowest and highest cost for virtually identical coverage was as high as 243 percent. ‘This is the largest spread I can recall in recent years,’ said Jesse Slome, director of the American Association for Long-Term Care Insurance (AALTCI), an industry group that issues an annual Long Term Care Insurance Price Index. ‘It’s rare to see
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“People Still Need a Way to Pay for Long-Term Care: Idea File,” by Allison Bell, ThinkAdvisor “Vince Bodnar, the chair of the Long Term Care Think Tank at the Society of Actuaries, has this idea: Someone ought to figure out more ways insurers can help people protect themselves against long-term care (LTC) risk. … Bodnar said in an interview that the SOA Long Term Care Think Tank has helped to develop two LTC finance concepts that appear to have broad appeal. One is the ‘life stage’ concept. A life stage product would term life coverage when an insured was young, then provide
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