“LTCG awarded five-year contract from the California Public Employees’ Retirement System (CalPERS),” LTCG “LTCG, the recognized leader in business processing outsourcing for long term care insurance, has just announced it has been awarded a five-year contract with CalPERS, one of its largest clients. CalPERS administers benefits, including a Long-Term Care Program, for California state employees and retirees as well as their families.” LTC Comment (from Stephen A. Moses, President, Center for Long-Term Care Reform): Congratulations to Center-corporate-member LTCG. LTCG awarded five-year contract from the California Public Employees’ Retirement System (CalPERS) #goldencareagent #calpers
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“Study suggests higher Medicaid payments for assisted living operators,” by Lois A. Bowers, McKnight’s Senior Living “States should make certain that Medicaid payments to assisted living community operators are high enough to encourage them to serve Medicaid beneficiaries and to increase beneficiaries’ access to home- and community-based services, according to the authors of a newly published study.” LTC Comment (from Stephen A. Moses, President, Center for Long-Term Care Reform): Medicaid ruined custodial nursing home care by creating a huge industry with generous payments and then cutting reimbursements below costs. Assisted living evolved as a less expensive private-pay alternative. Now Medicaid
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“Middle-Income Boomers Face ‘New Retirement’,” by Michael S. Fischer, ThinkAdvisor “Middle-income baby boomers remain unconvinced about a nationwide recovery from the financial crisis, and are unsure about their chances for a secure retirement, according to recent study commissioned by the Bankers Life Center for a Secure Retirement. . . . Two-thirds of boomers said they had not personally benefited from any economic recovery since 2007. Of these, 52% reported that their savings were lower today than before the financial crisis.” LTC Comment (from Stephen A. Moses, President, Center for Long-Term Care Reform): The Fed (poor monetary policy) and Congress (poor
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“Why a Pennsylvania insurer’s collapse could whack Californians in the wallet,” by Chad Terhune, Kaiser Health News “Among all the reasons for rising health insurance premiums, this one might be the most obscure: A long-term care insurer in Pennsylvania just went belly-up. Health insurers across the country are on the hook for hundreds of millions of dollars in losses stemming from the insolvency of Penn Treaty American Corp., of Allentown, Pa., and its two subsidiaries. . . . This is one of the largest insurance failures in U.S. history, said Joseph M. Belth, a professor emeritus of insurance at Indiana
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“Medicare Advantage Spends Less on Care, So Why Is It Costing So Much?,” by Austin Frakt, New York Times “The Medicare Advantage program was supposed to save taxpayers money by allowing insurers to offer older Americans private alternatives to Medicare. The plans now cover 19 million people, a third of all those who qualify for Medicare. Enrollee satisfaction is generally high, and studies show that plans offer higher quality than traditional Medicare. But the government pays insurers more than they pay out for patient care — in some years, it turns out, a great deal more. . . . One
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“LTC worker shortage a ‘train wreck waiting to happen,’ expert says,” by Alyssa Salela, McKnight’s LTC News “Low wages and a lack of respect for direct care workers is putting the long-term care industry on a dangerous path to worker shortages, a professor warned last week. . . . There will be a national shortage of 151,000 paid direct care workers and 3.8 million unpaid family caregivers by 2030, he said. That’s expected to increase consistently, with an estimated gap of 355,000 paid workers by 2040.” LTC Comment (from Stephen A. Moses, President, Center for Long-Term Care Reform): What’s the
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“Insurers Think They’ve Found the Perfect Patients for Profits,” by Zachary Tracer, Bloomberg “The turmoil around the Affordable Care Act has created heartburn for health insurers. The industry is betting that a different government program will soothe its ills. Big insurers have retreated from Obamacare’s individual market, where fighting over the future of the health law has contributed to financial losses. They’re focusing instead on Medicare Advantage, a politically popular program that’s being embraced by a growing population of older Americans.” LTC Comment (from Stephen A. Moses, President, Center for Long-Term Care Reform): MA continues to emerge as a model
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“Reverse Mortgage: Yes or No?,” by Kim Blanton, Squared Away Blog “The older people who either consider a reverse mortgage or actually get one don’t have much else to fall back on.  Their primary assets – outside of their homes – are a car worth no more than $7,000 and about $2,000 in a checking account. This was one salient fact unearthed about reverse mortgage users – or people who’ve looked into them – in a 2014-2015 survey led by Stephanie Moulton at Ohio State University. This supports a later study by Moulton that found that people who take out the
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“10 Tips for Children of Aging Parents,” by Marshall, Parker and Weber, LLC “Understand your parents’ strategy and options for long-term care. Statistics Methods of payment for long-term care Gifts Family Asset Protection Trust” LTC Comment (from Stephen A. Moses, President, Center for Long-Term Care Reform): This is what Medicaid planners are telling your prospects. 10 Tips for Children of Aging Parents #goldencareagent #medicaid
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