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November is Health Awareness Month
The conversation around long-term care and long-term care benefits is front and center for employers and insurance professionals due to demographic, legislative, and economic factors, and our inverted aging population. Today, the risk for those over the age of 65 is reported to be from 50% to as high as a 70% chance of needing long-term care services.
Who needs long-term care insurance?
We often think of the person receiving care as needing long-term-care (LTC) but with the shift towards providing care in the home LTC coverage may also assist the caregiver to help reduce the emotional and financial burden of providing care.
Employers may offer LTC in their benefits package as a way to support their employees who are also caregivers helping them to avoid missing work, reducing working hours, or even leaving the workforce due to the burden they experience caring for family members.
Learn about Physicians Insurance’s Long-Term Care insurance offerings.
But what exactly is long-term care insurance?
In insurance long-term care refers to support for managing basic day-to-day activities for those impacted by sickness, injury, aging, or cognitive impairment. This is focused on individuals who need assistance with certain “activities of daily living” to live as safely and independently as possible. Circumstances, such as cognitive impairment. Alzheimer’s disease is one example that may result in the need for long-term care.
Types of Care Services:
Common forms of care include but are not limited to nursing homes, home health aides and In-home care, assisted living facilities, adult day care facilities, and memory care facilities.
The stats:
- 43% Of LTC claims are for people under age 65.
- 70%of caregivers report form missing time from work
- 46% of caregivers have had to start working fewer scheduled hours. (Beyond Dollars. How caregiving impacts families, communities and society. Genworth. 2018.)
- 32% of employee caregivers left their jobs due to caregiving responsibilities, and 53% of those caregivers who leave their jobs cite the cost of paid help. 40% leave because they cannot meet the demands of caregiving and work. And, those with higher titles are the most likely to leave (The Caring Company. Harvard Business School. 2018)
- A taxpayer seeking advice about a particular situation must consult with his or her independent tax advisor
Explore Physicians Insurance offerings for Long-Term Care and other Life & Disability offerings.
If interested in exploring Long-Term Care insurance coverage, contact Scott Berger at sberger@mms.org or call 781-434-7177. Learn more about our Scott.
For more information on how Physicians Insurance can support your practice and help you mitigate risk, visit www.piam.com or call 800.522.7426.
