Health Care Collaboration

Knowing the average stay at a nursing home and at an assisted living facility will help you decide the coverage and the benefit period of your LTCI. This factor will also help you figure out ways to minimize your LTCI Premiums. 28 months is the average stay for nursing-home residents and 27 months for assisted-living residents.

Keep in mind that many receive some kind of long term care before or after their stay in a nursing home or an assisted living facility. 40% of residents in acute-care hospital or a short-stay nursing facility move to assisted living facilities. About 34% of assisted living facility residents move to a nursing home after their stay.

Before moving to nursing homes many received care in their own homes first. On an average a 65 year old today will need some kind of long term care services for at least three years according to studies. Because of the statistics provided above a LTCI policy with a three year coverage is most popular.

When there is a family history of Alzheimer’s disease and other such long-lasting conditions a longer benefit period is suggested. 20% of today’s 65 year olds need long term care for more than 5 years. Longer benefit periods result in higher premiums. Generally benefits for a lifetime cost more than twice the premiums of a three year benefit period.

The rule of thumb is to buy a policy with benefits that are ‘short and fat’ rather than ‘tall and thin’. For example if you buy a short and fat policy with a $200 maximum daily benefit for three years, you are actually buying a policy of $219,000 worth of long term care. Since your daily maximum is $200, you can not use more than $200 per day. You extend your coverage for more than three years if you use less than your daily maximum amount (i.e. $200).

Your daily maximum benefit is $100 for a 6 year benefit maybe an example of a ‘tall and thin’ policy. You can not receive more than $100 for your daily care with this policy. You will be forced to pay $50 out of pocket for every day of long term care if your daily care cost is $150.

As very often care is first received in the home look for a policy which has a longer waiting period for nursing home care, but with a zero day waiting period for home care. Consider paying extra for a rider to eliminate the waiting period for home care, instead of lowering the waiting period for all types of care, which can increase your premiums significantly.

A good idea to reduce premiums if you are married is to buy a shared benefit policy where each spouse buys a three year benefit, but each can use from the other’s benefit period if one needs a longer period than the other. For example, one can use the remaining one year if the spouse has already used up 5 years of coverage.

Learn more about long term care insurance. Stop by Maria Smith’s site where you can find out all about long term care health insurance and what it can do for you.

Nursing home care, home health care, assisted living and adult day care in some combination is offered by Long Term Care Insurance Policies. Special features, discounts, riders and expanded benefits distinguish one insurance companyfrom another. While some benefits come with a basic policy with few companies others offer the same at an extra cost through riders.

Though riders come with valuable benefits you must decide which riders are worth the extra cost. Few riders result in increased cost without corresponding increases in benefits. Review the following rider options below before you consider buying LTCI policy.

Spousal Benefit Rider A policy with the Spousal Benefit Rider though costing more comes with the advantage where each spouse can tap into the other’s benefit pool. Five or six years of benefits can be claimed by policy holders of policies with Spousal Benefit Rider.

Home Health Care Rider Almost all LTCI policies have some sort of home health care as part of their basic policy. Earlier some insurance companies offered home health care as a rider. But nowadays popular tax qualified long term care insurance policies enable you to use benefits which are not considered taxable income which also cover some home health care. If you are one of those with a non-tax qualified policy, ask your insurance company if you have home health care coverage.

Non-forfeiture Benefit Rider This rider assures you that if you stop paying premiums you will not forfeit all of your benefits. The two types of non-forfeiture benefit riders are the ‘cash back option’ rider and the ‘shortened benefit period’ rider. The cash back option feature also known as the ‘return of premium’ rider or ‘refund of premium’ rider guarantees the return of your premium to you or your beneficiary in case of your death or you stopped paying premiums. The ‘shortened benefit period’ rider guarantees your benefit for a specific amount of time based on how much you paid into the policy.

Return of Premium or Refund of Premium upon Death Rider The return of premium or refund of premium upon death rider pays only upon death but is not offered by all companies or in all states. If the policy benefits are not used by you during your life time, then your designated beneficiary or estate will be entitled to receive some or all of your paid up premiums. This rider may be built into the policy at a small cost or added on as a rider. With the built in return of premium or refund of premium rider the policy holder’s beneficiary or estate receive the premiums paid into the policy if the policy holder dies before the age of 65 or 70. With the return of premium rider a business can pay the premium and receive a tax deduction in the amount of the premium.

Inflation Rider Inflation Rider is the most important one regardless of which long term care insurance policy you buy. The Inflation Rider ensures that your LTCI benefits keep pace with the rising cost of health care.

Looking to find the best deal on long term care insurance rates, then visit www.olongtermcareinsurance.com to find the best advice on LTCI quotes for you.