Title: Examine Long Term Care Planning
1 Examine Long Term Care Planning
2Examine Long Term Care Planning
People seek long-term care when they have a
serious, ongoing health condition or disability,
and the need for long-term care can arise
immediately after a heart attack or stroke. In
addition, the need for LTC is rising due to
people get older, and illness or disability gets
worse. Generally, long-term care refers to the
provision of a variety of services to meet a
persons health or personal care needs during a
short or long period. Physicians should be aware
of the medical reasons people need long-term care
services because as a professional you often
treat the elderly. The most promising reason is
aging as we age, activities of daily living or
ADLs which include eating, bathing, dressing,
toileting, transferring, and continence are
getting harder and harder to perform without
assistance. Long-term care can be offered in a
nursing home, in a skilled nursing facility, or
even at home but it can be very expensive and the
need for the assistance required for years. The
yearly cost for full nursing home care can be
100,000 or more. Thus, for both family and
financial reasons, giving careful thought to
these challenges in advance of a long-term care
need is wise. Who Needs Long-Term Care? It is
very difficult to predict the person and time for
long-term care, but the following factors are
important that increase the risk of needing
long-term care.
3Examine Long Term Care Planning
- Age- The risk generally increases as people get
older. - Gender- Women are at higher risk than men because
they often live longer. - Marital status- Single people are more likely
than married people to need care from a paid
provider. - Lifestyle- Poor diet and exercise habits can
increase a persons risk. - Health and family history- These factors also
affect risk. - However, you are always unsure about the need for
long-term care hence planning for the possibility
of long-term helps you to learn about services in
your community and what they cost. In this brief,
you will understand various programs that will
pay for the long-term. - Medicaid
- The purpose of the Medicaid program is to help
individuals with low incomes and limited assets
get the health coverage they need, so state
Medicaid programs set strict income and asset
limits when determining whether applicants
qualify financially. - Every state in the US has a Medicaid program that
provides general health coverage and coverage for
nursing home services. These Medicaid programs
include individuals who need nursing homes or
long-term care also called Institutional Medicaid.
4Examine Long Term Care Planning
As mentioned earlier the nursing home services
include nursing care, personal care, and therapy
services. You should note that Medicare covers
some skilled nursing facility (SNF) care up to
100 days per benefit period and If you failed to
meet Medicares requirements for the SNF benefit
or reached Medicares limit of covered SNF care,
Medicaid may pay for this care. In other words,
you must be poor by defined state standards
before the government will assist under the
Medicaid program and you will get the assistance
in a nursing home. Insurance coverage Opting for
insurance like Long-term care (LTC) to cover
long-term care needs can be a sound part of a
financial plan. LTC insurance pays for long-term
care services in many settings like at home, in a
nursing home, assisted living facility, or adult
daycare facility. However, there are many
different LTC insurance plans and insurance
carriers hence it is important to work with an
insurance expert to make sure the plan you select
will meet your foreseeable needs. However, In the
case of traditional LTC do not have cash value,
nor do they have a death benefit. If a person is
eligible for LTC benefits (by becoming unable to
perform two of six ADLs) then the traditional
policy pays a daily or monthly reimbursement for
approved expenses up to the maximum daily/monthly
benefit chosen by the insured. You can find the
variation between upper and lower limits among
carriers but are in the 20 to 300 per day range.
5Examine Long Term Care Planning
Moreover, there are Facility-only, or facility
and in-home care policies are existing, but
elimination periods (deductibles) apply and can
range from 0 days to 90 days. Universal life
insurance policies Purchasing a universal life
insurance policy is another way of addressing
long-term care needs. This policy must be
purchased with an attached rider that can
accelerate all or a portion of the death benefit
for payment of approved long-term care costs. In
this policy, the benefits are received mostly the
same way as under a traditional LTC policy. In
conclusion, it is wise to proactively examine
options for you and your family members before
the need for long-term care arises. If you want
to know more about billing for a long term care
then you can get in touch with us.
6(No Transcript)