Jumbo liability claims hit continuing care communities

Consumers sometimes see continuing care retirement communities (CCRCs) — facilities that combine ordinary apartments with assisted living facility beds and skilled nursing home beds — as an alternative to long-term care insurance (LTCI).

Analysts at CNA Financial Corp. say U.S. CCRC facilities seem to have suffered in a big increase in the likelihood that a resident liability claim would be an extremely costly claim.

The analysts looked at closed professional liability claims at CCRCs and other types of long-term care (LTC) facilities.

CCRCs accounted now account for about 14 percent of the beds CNA insures, up from 11 percent in 2012, and they account for 7.5 percent of CNA’s closed LTC facility professional liability claims, down from 7.8 percent two years earlier.

But the average amount paid for a closed CCRC claim has soared to $317,741 this year, up from $168,422. The average for all closed LTC facility professional liability claims has held steady at about $211,000. The average fell about 9 percent at stand-alone skilled nursing facilities and rose about 10 percent at stand-alone assisted living facilities.