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If I’m Not Here, Call Claim Jockey

April 15, 2014 by Honey Leveen Leave a Comment

While at the recent Society of Actuaries Long-Term Care Conference, I met with Wendy Rinehart, the owner and founder of www.ClaimJockey.com. Claim Jockey performs a much needed service.

I often forget how spoiled my clients are. I’ve been answering their calls, offering guidance, and explaining how their LTCi policies work for 23 years now. This is highly unusual. I often have clients surprised when I pick up the phone and they find me still alive, well, accountable, and happy to take whatever time is necessary to counsel them about how to collect from their LTCi. I also often recommend germane services based on the circumstances they describe. To the consternation of some clients, I also offer advice and opinions, whether or not I’m asked!

After doing what I do: selling and servicing long-term care insurance (LTCi) for many years, Wendy became aware of a crying need not being tended to. That’s why she founded www.ClaimJockey.com.

What happens when there is no agent like me around? This is the case for most LTCi policyholders. I believe the majority of agents who sell LTCi do not achieve success and are therefore not available and accountable to their clients after the sale. When policyholders call the name and number on the business card stapled to their policy, they often don’t find their agent.

LTCi policyholders often try to call their agent when they need help urgently. This can be a very scary time. It’s sad that at the point when many are more vulnerable than they’ve ever been, there is no one trustworthy to talk with.

This is where Wendy and www.ClaimJockey.com step in. Claim Jockey can interpret and explain the caller’s LTCi policy. They can assess whether a claim is warranted. And they can assist with the claim.

I salute Wendy for recognizing these needs and creating www.ClaimJockey.com. She and her staff are truly helping with a great need.

Long-Term Care Insurance is Good for America!

April 9, 2014 by Honey Leveen Leave a Comment

I want to share part of a powerful address that Tom McInerney delivered at the recent Society of Actuaries Long-Term Care Conference. His talk had great impact on me.

Mr. McInerney is the CEO of Genworth Financial, a leader in the long-term care insurance (LTCi) marketplace. He stated the federal government faces at least $40-70 trillion in entitlement liabilities (Medicare, Social Security and Medicaid). A 2009 GAO Report supports a $45 trillion number. A more recent Heritage Foundation report estimates $45 trillion for Social Security and Medicare alone. All three of these programs are “Pay-As-You-Go”, which means they need to be paid for through current payroll or income taxes.

Our current federal tax revenues are $2.7T per year (see CBO Report FY 2013 estimate). If you add $40 – 70 trillion of entitlement to our existing $17 trillion deficit, even a doubling of taxes, which would further slow our economy, wouldn’t put much of a dent on the public sector’s true liabilities of $60 – 80 trillion! To add to this dilemma, we currently have a ratio of fewer than three workers per retiree supporting Social Security. According to the Social Security Administration, this ratio gets worse every day.

Let me add that our legislators know that Medicare, Social Security, and Medicaid need reform urgently. But for their own reasons, neither party will broach this subject. I have blogged about this here and here. With each passing day, the entitlement crisis grows worse, and Mr. McInerney states that counseling that we should rely exclusively on a taxpayer-funded solution to pay for long-term care in the US is irresponsible. I don’t think it’s irresponsible. I think it is off-the-deep end unrealistic and irrational to believe publicly paid long-term care is possible! Yet such irrational, “feel good” solutions seem to prevail.

Here’s a blog that gives an example of the prevalence of such irrational points of view. It’s called “Reaming Diane Rehm“. During her show on long-term care, Diane Rehm paid most of her attention to a supporter of government paid long-term care. She did not have a single representative of the insurance industry on this show, yet plenty of time was spent smashing and bashing LTCi. I pointed out some of the many false and irrational statements made on this show in a professionally written letter I sent to Diane Rehm by surface mail and email; I never even got an acknowledgement from her or her staff.

Meanwhile, Americans haven’t saved enough to cover their long-term care costs. The private long-term care insurance market can’t cover everybody, but it can cover some of us. The more LTCi policies issued, the less pressure on Medicaid budgets and other entitlement spending in the future.

It is Proven That Not Planning for Long-Term Care Ahead of Time Can Cause Harm to Those You Love

April 1, 2014 by Honey Leveen Leave a Comment

Don’t say I didn’t warn you about the hazards of not planning responsibly for your long-term care (LTC).

Unpaid care, normally provided by family and friends, is not calculated into the Gross Domestic Product (GDP), but if was, it would represent a significant percentage of the GDP.

According to www.longlivetexans.com/index.php/site/facts-figures, TX ranks number two nationally in the amount of uncompensated care provided by caregivers. We also have a very high incidence of Alzheimer’s Disease.

It’s unpaid care that can kill. Much, if not most care in the US is provided by family and friends on an unpaid basis and often at huge physical, emotional, and financial sacrifice to the amateur caregivers.

A new study by the AARP Public Policy Institute and the United Hospital Fund reports on just how much care, and what type of care employed family members (unpaid caregivers) provide. Here’s the link to the study. The findings are alarming. Despite workplace obligations, nearly half of all employed family caregivers perform many of the tasks we normally associated with licensed health care professionals, including a range of medical/nursing tasks, such as medication management, wound care, using meters and monitors, and more.

This report also describes the characteristics and stress levels of working versus unemployed family caregiver. No surprise: employed caregivers suffer more stress.

People who own long-term care insurance and need long-term care create less stressful, more dignified, considerate outcomes for themselves and those they love. They have more long-term care options to choose from. Watch some of the videos here to learn why.

I will never understand why well educated people, with successful careers and decent incomes, who can afford reasonably priced long-term care insurance, often go out of their way to avoid having even a preliminary conversation about responsible long-term care planning with me.

Many of Us Are Setting Ourselves Up for Undignified, Bleak Final Years

March 17, 2014 by Honey Leveen Leave a Comment

In my March 6, 2014 blog, I reported that TX ranks third in the country in the incidence of Alzheimer’s Disease (AD) and second in the country for number of Alzheimer’s deaths. It turns out, this could be wrong.

A provocative new study reported in the March 12, 2014 New York Times, suggests that Alzheimer’s disease causes six times as many deaths as the official statistics would indicate!

Here’s a quote from the new study:

“Alzheimer’s disease and other dementias are under-reported on death certificates and medical records,” said study author Bryan D. James, PhD, of Rush University Medical Center in Chicago. “Death certificates often list the immediate cause of death, such as pneumonia, rather than listing dementia as an underlying cause.” James added that attempting to identify a single cause of death does not always capture the reality of the process of dying for most elderly people, as multiple health issues often contribute.”

People with AD need more expensive long-term care than anyone else. According to the American Association for Long-Term Care Insurance (www.aaltci.org), the number one reason people collect from long-term care insurance (LTCi) is due to Alzheimer’s Disease (AD). Insurance companies pay out more money on AD claims than for any other cause.

Unfortunately, most people don’t own long-term care insurance. Most people figure out how expensive, stressful, and time consuming caring for an AD patient is, the hard way.

Here’s additional news that does not bode well for most of us, who are woefully unprepared for retirement and long-term care.

It is unrealistic to expect the government to pay for long-term care. That’s the subject of a different blog.

Here’s a link to Terry Savage’s February 25, 2014 Huffington Post column describing why retirement is becoming a luxury fewer and fewer people can enjoy.

Here’s a March 12, 2014 New York Times article describing why income inequality often disables wealth transfers at death. From the article, “The top 1 percent of households owns about 35 percent of American wealth, more than the entire bottom 90 percent does.” At death, the wealth of the 1% is not trickling down to the rest of us.

Long-term care insurance (LTCi) can be reasonable in cost. To me, what’s not reasonable, is needing long-term care for anything but a short time, and not owning LTCi.

My advice is to read, heed, and be honest about your future by preparing responsibly for your long-term care.

Moving Story About How Long-Term Care Insurance Works

March 14, 2014 by Honey Leveen Leave a Comment

What follows is a true story about a friend and colleague. An extraordinary health event occurred. My friend’s long-term care insurance (LTCi) kicked in, exactly as planned. LTCi has provided dignity for my friend and her family, plus choices and options that would otherwise not be possible.

My Story: Talking the Talk and Walking the Walk

by Allan Shoff

This is the story of my wife, Karen Shoff, and the role long-term care insurance has played in our lives.

Karen is the love of my life. We’ve been married for 33 years. She was active, passionate and accomplished in her varied life endeavors. Our rich family life was a huge source of satisfaction to Karen. We have two grown children, 12 grandchildren and one great grandchild. Our daughter, son-in-law, and five of our grandchildren have now moved back from Israel to help with Karen’s care.

In 2009, Karen had some tingling in her left arm. We went to Cedars Sinai Hospital’s emergency room where they did several examinations, including a brain scan. There were problems with the machine’s calibration—and with the technician giving the brain scan. Karen got eight times the recommended radiation dosage. Within a short time, she began to experience memory loss. We were part of a class-action lawsuit and received a fairly paltry settlement, which only paid for about eight months of Karen’s care.

Over the past four years, Karen has continued to lose function. She no longer speaks to people or interacts with anyone at a personal level. She has some pain, but more discomfort and fear of falling. Music therapy has been helpful to her, but over the past few weeks, she has become more and more withdrawn, spending virtually the whole day with her eyes closed, and communicating very little with anyone.

Many readers of this newsletter know of Karen. Karen was one of the most passionate, knowledgeable, reputable, accomplished long-term care insurance specialists in the country. She was a visionary and a true leader. She was a featured speaker at NAHU’s 2001 National Convention and a long-time member of the Million Dollar Round Table. She was always seeking ways to give back to the insurance profession and the world. She did whatever she could to foster interest in long-term care insurance education and responsible financial planning.

Karen has her undergraduate degree from Cornell, a master’s from Smith College School for social work, and a master’s from the Leonard Davis School of Gerontology at USC. The early part of her career was spent as a social worker at a nursing home.

Karen’s experience as a nursing home social worker made a huge impression on her. In addition, her own experience with her father compelled her to write her widely acclaimed book, “There’s No Place Like [A Nursing] Home”. You can learn about this book and buy a copy at www.longtermcarela.com or email me at shoffandshoff@earthlink.net. Many advisors have found the book to be a powerful tool in their practice.

The book intimately tells the story of our experience caring for my father-in-law at home. At age 97, my father-in-law suffered a massive stroke. His doctors told us they did not expect him to survive more than a week. Against all odds and advice, but with the wholehearted support of our family, we flew Karen’s father from New York to our home in Santa Monica, CA, and provided him with 24-hour care for the last 11 months of his life. Due to the excellent care Karen arranged for her father at home, he exceeded all expectations and regained his speech. Although he would not re-gain other skills, he found pleasure reminiscing and participating in other facets of family life. Karen publicly expressed, as often as she could, how precious to us all his last few months were.

Thank goodness Karen talked the talk and walked the walk by placing ample long-term care insurance on herself.

Karen has been using caregivers since August 2011. At present, she has 24-hour care with three regular caregivers. One is a nurse who spends about 15 hours a day here, plus two additional part-time caregivers. In addition, our daughter, son-in-law and grandchildren all help in various ways. I do what I can, but the whole situation is very trying for me.

Karen owns two CNA LTCI policies, each with lifetime benefit periods and 5% annual compound growth increases. These policies cover about 85-90% of Karen’s care expenses. Without her LTCI, the necessary, dignified, loving level of care Karen receives would be entirely impossible.

If I’m Not Here, Call Claim Jockey

It is Proven That Not Planning for Long-Term Care Ahead of Time Can Cause Harm to Those You Love

Many of Us Are Setting Ourselves Up for Undignified, Bleak Final Years

Moving Story About How Long-Term Care Insurance Works

From My Blog

Podcast Illuminates LTC Need

LTCI is Magical at Time of Need!

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