Experient Health Explains Long Term Care Insurance In Blog Series
Richmond, VA (PRWEB) June 17, 2014 -- No one wants to think about aging and growing old. But the realities, and potential long-term care costs, aren't going away.
So what is long-term care?
Experient Health answers that and other details about long-term care insurance in its latest blog series on the various types of insurance families and individuals can purchase and employers can offer.
"Long-term care (LTC) refers to a wide array of medical care, personal assistance and social support services for people who are physically or mentally unable to independently care for themselves for an extended period," wrote Experient Health, the health insurance arm of the Virginia Farm Bureau, based in Richmond, Va. "This care can be provided in a nursing home, an assisted living facility or in one’s home. Individuals needing LTC require assistance performing basic activities for daily living or suffer from severe cognitive impairment. Generally, the disabilities requiring LTC are caused by accidents, illnesses or advanced age."
To combat the high costs of long-term care, LTC insurance protects individuals against incurring large out-of-pocket expenses in the future by paying affordable monthly premiums now. The two different types of long-term care insurance policies available include individual long-term care insurance and group long-term care insurance.
"Individual policies are generally purchased by people whose employers do not offer a group policy, or by those who feel that they need to supplement their employer’s policy to obtain the most coverage possible," Experient Health wrote. "If employers and associations offer long-term care insurance to employees in the form of a group long-term care insurance policy, the policy may not offer the same level of protection afforded by individual long-term care insurance policies."
Although long-term care insurance evolved from income disability insurance, major medical insurance or disability insurance does not protect a policyholder in the same way.
Unlike a health plan that may cover 30 days of recuperative time, a long-term plan will cover two years or more. Beyond that, disability insurance replaces only salary at the time of the injury, and does not cover the cost of care. The policyholder would then have to pay out-of-pocket for any ongoing long-term medical care due to his or her accident or injury.
To read more about Medicare coverage of long-term care expenses, how long-term care insurance policies are designed, tax implications and how carriers offer inflation protection, visit the Experient Health blog here.
For more information on long-term care insurance, access America’s Health Insurance Plans’ Guide to Long-term Insurance.
Group long-term care insurance may not be the right choice for all employers. Contact an Experient Health representative for more information.
"We welcome the opportunity to help your organization examine its plan design(s) and make recommendations for improvement," Experient Health wrote.
Stephanie Heinatz, Consociate Media, +1 (757) 713-2199, [email protected]
Share this article