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Testimonial for LTC insurance

May 19, 2014 by Honey Leveen Leave a Comment

An obituary of Gaye McCutchen, who was highly educated and accomplished, deliberately makes mention of the long-term care insurance (LTCi) she owned, and how beautifully it worked.

I cannot tell from the obituary whether Ms. McCutchen collected from her policy for days, months, or years. But I can tell from the obituary that her LTCi made a striking difference in the quality of her life.

Here’s a quote from the obituary:

“Thankfully, her foresight in purchasing Long Term Care Insurance (LTCi), many years ago, made it possible for her to use her policy to pay for excellent home care during her illness. We thank all of the caregivers provided by Home Care Solutions, but special thanks go to Emelda Buezo and Charlene White. Gaye loved these dear ladies due to their warm and caring nature and upbeat spirit.”

Maybe Ms. McCuthen had the money to pay for all the care she needed from her savings. One thing I have observed, though, is that when people are sick, they don’t have time (or often cognitive ability) to finagle/buy/sell/liquidate/re-organize their estate to pay for unplanned, expensive long-term care costs. Often, the treatment of their illness is all-consuming, time-wise, physically, and emotionally.

People (and their loved ones) dealing with illness are often fearful and in no position to shrewdly re-arrange their finances. We often see affluent people who can afford the right long-term care resist getting the type of care they need.

Being ill and physically dependent, after a lifetime of independence is an incredibly sad thing. It must only compound such sadness when savings start flying out the window to pay for care costs, as well.

LTCi ownership is about having dignity, options and choices without hesitation or pause, just like Ms. McCutchen did. It is necessary to plan in advance if you want to ensure the type of quality outcome Ms. McCuthen had. LTCi premiums are not necessarily expensive. What can be expensive is needing long-term care for anything but a short period of time, and not owning LTCi.

Why Staff (Is All That) Matters in Choosing a Nursing Home (Not!)

May 14, 2014 by Honey Leveen Leave a Comment

In all of my 23 years specializing exclusively in long-term care insurance (LTCi), the Houston Chronicle has done scant reporting on LTCi and long-term care planning. They’ve done a story on how to financially plan for aging and left out mentioning LTCi altogether. On the rare occasion they’ve made mention of LTCi they’ve gotten vital facts wrong.

In a city as large as ours, I’m very embarrassed about the Houston Chronicle’s dearth of coverage of LTCi, a subject that would help its readers. I believe New York, Washington, DC, Chicago, and many smaller cities than Houston, have had good coverage of LTCi lately. Houston still hasn’t.

In her recent Houston Chronicle column, “Why Staff Matters in Choosing a Nursing Home”, reporter Cindy George advises using various online tools to help you “shop” for a facility that won’t neglect or abuse your loved one. She makes this task sound as easy as, say, researching a computer or vacation online.

If you do the proper research, her article implies, your loved one won’t be subject to neglect, abuse, or the murders or beatings that have recently occurred at two Houston nursing facilities. Or maybe your loved one will be subject to just some abuse and neglect, but not beatings or murders? To accomplish this just use the tools she provides; it’s that easy.

Here’s what I wrote to her on my Facebook page:

“Cindy George of the Houston Chronicle, I know you’re trying to help by offering advice on how to choose a functional nursing home, in light of the recent nursing home violence we’ve had in Houston. Your advice may make readers feel good in the short term by giving them the impression there are decent odds they might have any control over the quality of their care if they cannot afford to pay for it. I would like to help add depth to your reporting and hope you will accept my invite to lunch or coffee.”

The problem with stories like “Why Staff Matters in Choosing a Nursing Home” is that it lulls people into believing doing correct facility research and shopping is all they’ll need to access quality long-term care. Responsible long-term care planning is not necessary. The government is there and will be there to pay for quality long-term care.

Search on this blog for “Nursing Homes” to learn a lot about why the government can’t – and won’t – pay for meaningful, adequate long-term care.

Government financing for long-term care is decreasing. Nursing home failures, neglect, abuse, tragedies, are increasing.

Generation Warfare is Brewing

May 12, 2014 by Honey Leveen Leave a Comment

In her April 9, 2014 column, one of my heroines, Terry Savage, describes looming Generation Warfare.

In a nutshell, our government is spending far more than it takes in. Check out Truth in Accounting, a nonprofit that keeps track of both our current national debt and the burden of future government payment promises. We now have an “official” national debt of more than $17.4 Trillion. The ticking clock on their website shows that we have promised to pay a total of $76 trillion to future Social Security and Medicare recipients, not to mention interest on our debt, along with military retirement benefits, etc.

In other words, we owe a lot of money! More than the government can raise in taxes.

In the meantime, Washington is playing a shell game. Instead of figuring out how to grow the economic pie, they are obsessed with dividing up the existing pie.

Generational warfare is brewing. Young people are enticed to take out student loans at interest rates many times what the government pays to borrow — and then graduate into an economy that is not providing jobs so they can repay those loans.

Younger workers pay into a Social Security “trust fund” that is scheduled to move onto shaky ground long before they can expect to receive benefits. They’ll be supporting government retirement benefits for someone else’s parents and grandparents.

And from the seniors’ side, isn’t it generation warfare for the Fed to keep interest rates low (depriving seniors of the opportunity to earn interest in their retirement years), so that the government’s unprecedented borrowing (a burden on the young) can continue?

And isn’t it generation warfare to reduce the government’s support for Medicare Advantage plans and limit Medicare reimbursements to physicians and hospitals, just when seniors most need the care?

Here’s another article about oncoming Generation Warfare that came out about the same time Terry Savage’s column did. It echoes what Terry predicts.

My April 9, 2014 blog is about how astonishingly huge and unsustainable our national debt is. Tax collection doesn’t put a dent in it. Medicare and Medicaid, the primary ways long-term care is paid in the US, are on the firing line and already suffering cutbacks. The giant bulge of Baby Boomers, most of whom are wholly unprepared to pay for their long-term care, is just beginning to hit our system.

At age 65, there’s a 70% chance any of us will need long-term care during our lives. I urge you not to depend on the government to provide your long-term care.

Nursing Home Murders: Connecting the Dots with Medicaid-Paid LTC

May 1, 2014 by Honey Leveen Leave a Comment

With permission from The Center for Long-Term Care Reform, I republish their Monday, April 28, 2014 post about my prior blog.

The reason I chose to cover the horrific nursing home murders still in the headlines here in Houston, is because there is a link between failing to plan responsibly for long-term care well in advance and tragic outcomes, whether or not they’re of the magnitude of the Lexington Place murders.

Many who can afford reasonably priced long-term care insurance simply won’t entertain it. They make excuses to avoid such conversations. It’s an uncomfortable conversation to have.

The horror and negligence that occurred at Lexington Place Nursing Home may be isolated (or maybe not since most of us choose to turn our heads away from this type of event). Even so, the importance of these posts is to understand that such events may be indicative of a widespread trend that’s just beginning.

I’ve chosen to cover these tragic murders because to me, they’re the tip of the iceberg. The industrialized warehousing of the indigent who need care will increase as our national debt grows, Medicaid and Medicare reimbursements continue to drop, and the partisan stalemate in Washington continues. And this financial catastrophe is approaching at an increasingly rapid rate as government programs are deluged with unprepared Baby Boomers who need long-term care but did not plan for it when they were able to afford and obtain reasonably priced long-term care insurance (LTCi). Sadly, events like the Lexington Place murders may become more common.

This blog and the one before it are meant to educate. If these tragic posts help even one person wake up and decide to defer their purchase of a new flatscreen TV or more expensive car in favor of buying a reasonably priced LTCi policy, they’ll be worth it.

LTC E-Alert #14-014: The Nursing Home Murders and LTC News and Comment

Monday, April 28, 2014

Seattle –

LTC Comment: Did you see the news coverage last week about two nursing home residents bludgeoned to death by their roommate in Houston? We opted not to cover it then, but the story does illustrate an important point. Nursing homes, especially those in poorer areas, are heavily dependent on Medicaid which pays them less than the cost of providing the care. Generous Medicare reimbursements help to make up part of the shortfall (at least for now), but the nursing homes most heavily dependent on Medicaid resort to cutting caregiver staff to a minimum and paying extremely low wages in order to operate.

So what? Well, Honey Leveen, the self-proclaimed “Queen of Long-Term Care” and the Center’s Regional Representative in Houston, draws out the ramifications in her recent blog post here. We encourage you to read it and to follow her links to more of the background. Honey points out that the nursing home in which the murders occurred has “nearly all” Medicaid residents. She opines that inadequate revenue led to dysfunctional management which resulted in poor care and finally in this awful crime. She links to an earlier article she wrote for LifeHealthPRO questioning the value of “Partnership” policies that leave people dependent on Medicaid’s mostly nursing-home based care.

This is sad stuff, but information all LTCI producers should consider as they advise clients on long-term care planning.

“Police Say Nursing Home Resident Killed 2 With Arm of Wheelchair”

April 26, 2014 by Honey Leveen Leave a Comment

The breaking news that immediately seized my eye on the front page of the April 23, 2014 Houston Chronicle was, “Police say nursing home resident killed 2 with arm of wheelchair.”

The murders took place at Lexington Place nursing facility.

This is an article I wrote about Lexington Place. I’ve been there a few times and have toured it. The article was published in an insurance trade magazine in August, 2011.

What’s interesting is that hardly anyone ever comments on my blogs or online articles. This had been the case with all the articles I wrote for this magazine, except for this one, which described a few aspects of life inside Lexington Place. This particular article motivated many peers from all over the country to comment, all in positive ways. They all thanked me for telling the story straight.

According to my source, almost all of Lexington Place’s residents were/are Medicaid recipients. That means that Lexington Place was/is in a particularly precarious situation. Medicaid reimburses at rates that are beneath what it actually costs to provide care for nursing home patients.

If you search this website for “nursing homes”, you’ll find much factual information on why nursing homes are suffering. Essentially, most Medicaid-funded nursing facilities are the red and continue to suffer funding cuts.

Here, I opine: there is something about money being in short supply that causes businesses to panic. Then fear sets in. Then dysfunctional management occurs. This is what I believe occurred at Lexington Place.

I believe Lexington Place admitted people it probably shouldn’t have, in hopes of keeping its census high. If funding gets cut, a volume approach is often the remedy, whether this makes sense in the big picture, or not.

I believe, based on information I was given by a trustworthy former employee there, that Lexington Place is also woefully understaffed. That is what I was told, that’s what I reported in my August, 2011 story.

My question remains: if people complained about the murderer’s violent tendencies, why was his behavior not dealt with in a more reasonable manner?

The murderer bludgeoned his victims with the arm of a wheelchair. I presume the deaths were not sudden, but rather, drawn out in a process involving screaming, for quite a while. Where were the caregivers?

I think the answer to the above question must be screaming similar to that of the murder victims is a normal occurrence at Lexington Place.

Testimonial for LTC insurance

Why Staff (Is All That) Matters in Choosing a Nursing Home (Not!)

Nursing Home Murders: Connecting the Dots with Medicaid-Paid LTC

“Police Say Nursing Home Resident Killed 2 With Arm of Wheelchair”

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