Voluntary Benefits

Long Term Care Insurance

Long-term care insurance (LTC) is a term that generally refers to a broad range of medical, personal, and environmental services and is designed to assist individuals who have lost their ability to remain wholly independent in the community. Although care may be provided for short periods of time while a patient is recuperating from an accident or illness, long-term care involves care provided for an extended period of time, normally more than 90 days.

Typically, the need for long-term care arises when physical or cognitive conditions impair a person's ability to perform the basic activities of everyday life - things like eating a meal, taking a bath, getting dressed, or moving from a bed to a chair. Long-term care may be provided by family, friends or any number of health care professionals and can be divided into three levels: skilled care, intermediate care and custodial care.

Many people mistakenly think their health insurance or Medicare will pay for long-term care services, when it is really the case that health insurance really only pays for doctor and hospital bills. If someone develops a chronic illness, or becomes disabled and is unable to care for themselves for an extended period of time - then that person will need long-term care services. Long-term care services can be very expensive. Nursing home care averages more than $60,000 per year. Part-time, in-home care can cost more than $20,000 annually.

While long-term care needs can be devastating to your employees, they affect employers as well. For example, an employee who is dealing with long-term care needs for a family member may experience an increase in absenteeism, lowered productivity and morale, and an inability to travel for business. This contributes to the fact that long-term care insurance has become one of the most rapidly growing employee benefits today.

Let Clark & Lavey help you plan your long-term care packages today.