Changes to the Partnership for Long-Term Care Insurance Program

June 27, 2012 - PRLog -- The primary advantage of purchasing a partnership long-term care insurance ("LTCI") policy is that if the insured exhausts all of his or her available coverage, he or she can apply for Medicaid benefits and exclude countable resources equal to the amount paid for care by the LTCI coverage.  However, some changes are being made specifically in New York to modernize the partnership LTCI program, to-wit:

   A plan option is expected to be made available offering two years of nursing home coverage and four years of home care or residential care.
   It is expected that New York will participate in reciprocity as offered in the Deficit Reduction Act of 2005.  This means that New Yorkers who purchase the policy are able to relocate to another state exercising the partnership program and take advantage of the partnership LTCI plan benefits such as asset protection.
   Every partnership LTCI policy must meet a minimum daily benefit amount and have an inflation factor.  The inflation factor was 5%, but research has shown that a more accurate amount would be 3.5%, which is now available to policy holders.
   Insurance agents are now able to become certified to sell partnership LTCI policies through all online training, versus traveling to in-person classroom training sessions.

The aforementioned changes are being put in place to make the partnership LTCI policies more attractive to policyholders, and to bring savings to the Medicaid program.