“How to protect your retirement when your senior parent needs financial help,” by Tamara E. Holmes, USA Today “A growing number of seniors are finding themselves needing financial help. A study released this month by the Consumer Bankruptcy Project found that bankruptcy filings among people 65 and older have tripled since 1991. Sometimes medical costs are to blame; in other cases, seniors find that they have not saved enough for retirement.  Like Holmes, many adult children step in to provide their parents with financial relief. … If you’re planning to offer financial help to mom and dad, here’s how to
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“LTCG to Provide Administration to Wilton Re in Support of Its Transformative Reinsurance Transaction with CNO Financial,” by Business Wire, Yahoo Finance “LTCG has entered into a strategic contract to support Wilton Re in the administration of long-term care insurance (LTCi). On August 1, CNO Financial Group announced that its wholly-owned subsidiary, Bankers Life and Casualty Company, signed a long-term care insurance indemnity reinsurance agreement with Wilton Re. This agreement covers nursing home and comprehensive LTCi forms sold prior to 2003. The transaction is anticipated to close no later than the end of 2018. Wilton Re has selected LTCG to
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“Are You Ready for Longevity? 4 Steps to Take Now,” by Tracy Craig, Kiplinger “Consider purchasing long-term care insurance while you’re still healthy enough to qualify, so you don’t have to use all of your own money to pay for your care. Long-term care insurance typically pays for both skilled nursing home care and in-home health care aides.” LTC Comment (from Stephen A. Moses, President, Center for Long-Term Care Reform): Kiplinger’s periodic advice to buy LTCI is always welcome. Are You Ready for Longevity? 4 Steps to Take Now #longevity #goldencareagent
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“HC2 Completes One LTCI Deal, Seeks More: Have an unwanted LTCI block, and some cash? Philip Falcone’s company might be interested,” by Allison Bell, ThinkAdvisor “Continental General Insurance Company, a subsidiary of HC2 Holdings Inc., today completed a major long-term care insurance (LTCI) deal with Humana Inc. — and Continental managers are out looking for more LTCI risk transfer deals. Continental General paid $10,000 in cash to Humana Inc., for the shares of KMG America Corp., the parent company of Kanawha Insurance Company. In exchange, Continental General received Kanawha’s assets, $195 million in extra cash from Humana, and responsibility for about 29,300 LTCI
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“Learning To Live Well With Dementia,” by Judith Graham, Washington Post “Imagine your doctor telling you have Alzheimer’s disease or some other type of dementia. Then, imagine being told, ‘I’m sorry, there’s nothing we can do. You might want to start getting your affairs in order.’ Time and again, people newly diagnosed with these conditions describe feeling subsequently overcome by hopelessness. In their new book, ‘Better Living With Dementia,’ Laura Gitlin and Nancy Hodgson — two of the nation’s leading experts on care for people with cognitive impairment — argue forcefully that it’s time for this ‘cycle of despair’ to
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“How Medicare’s Private Plans Surpass the Traditional Program,” by Kevin Pham and Robert Moffit, The Heritage Foundation “Medicare Advantage, a system of competing private health plans, is surpassing the traditional Medicare program in delivering high quality, cost-effective care. The Medicare Advantage population essentially mirrored the traditional Medicare population. Congress should recognize the Medicare Advantage program’s superior performance in serving Medicare beneficiaries in a cost-effective fashion.” LTC Comment (from Stephen A. Moses, President, Center for Long-Term Care Reform): Heritage paper on the advantages of Medicare Advantage compared to traditional Medicare. How Medicare’s Private Plans Surpass the Traditional Program #medicare #goldencareagent
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“Medicaid Officials Target Home Health Aides’ Union Dues,” by Shefali Luthra, National Public Radio “Medicaid home care aides — hourly workers who help elderly and disabled people with daily tasks like eating, getting dressed and bathing — are emerging as the latest target in the ongoing power struggle between some conservative lawmakers and organized labor. … A rule proposed recently by the federal Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, under the Trump administration, would prohibit home health aides who are paid directly by Medicaid from having their union dues automatically deducted from their paychecks, though it doesn’t name these fees
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“Higher acuity, assisted living behind nursing home Medicare spending growth, experts say,” by Marty Stempniak, McKnight’s LTC News “Increased acuity and investment in dual eligibles at the state level have resulted in long-stay nursing home residents driving Medicare spending growth, according to a new analysis published this week in Health Affairs. … Pouring over beneficiary data from 2007 to 2015, investigators found that — regardless of Medicaid participation or age — beneficiaries with long-term (three months or longer) nursing home use had some of the highest spending growth rates. Those averaged between 1.7 and 4.1%, they found.” LTC Comment (from
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“LTCI Issuers May Be Counting on Health Improvement That Isn’t Coming: Prudential,” by Allison Bell, ThinkAdvisor “Prudential Financial Inc. is adding $1.4 billion to its long-term care insurance (LTCI) reserves, to reflect the possibility that improvement in the ability of the insureds to function may not show up. Back in 2012, when Prudential stopped selling new LTCI policies, it had few LTCI policyholders collecting benefits. It used data from outside sources to set the assumptions used to decide how much to set aside to pay claims, according to Robert Falzon, the company’s chief financial officer. Prudential had assumed that morbidity
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“Study confirms what many suspect: Assisted living’s growth taking a toll on skilled care private pay,” by John O’Connor, McKnight’s Senior Living “Many operators are convinced senior living is growing at skilled care’s expense. A new study adds nuance to the numbers. ‘Our research suggests private pay occupancy has fallen in nursing homes located in counties with disproportionately high growth in assisted living,’ co-author David C. Grabowski, Ph.D., a professor of healthcare policy at Harvard Medical School, told McKnight’s Senior Living. … The authors cited several possible explanations for the private-pay downturn in skilled care settings. One is that assisted
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