The organizers of the recent Intercompany Long Term Care Insurance (ILTCI) Conference attracted the insurers that have hung on through thick and thin, and thinner.
They also attracted a number of exhibitors from outside the ranks of long-term care insurance (LTCI) insurers, distributors and consumer-side producers.
Many of the booths were set up by sellers of long-term care (LTC) services, home care products, business support services, information services, data analysis services, nonprofit groups and several private investigators.
Jonas Roeser of the 3in4 Association, an LTC planning awareness group, was there to make the case that insurers can get a lot more bang for the promotional buck when they back a nonprofit awareness campaign than when they try to promote for-profit products on their own. He pointed out that the last awareness campaign lasted 12 weeks, got slots on 33 morning shows and generated media coverage with a value of about $6.3 million.
Sandy Hampel, a director at ACORD, was at the conference to look for opportunities to help LTCI issuers and distributors by establishing new LTCI data standards. Typically, LTCI issuers have used life industry standards. LTCI issuers and actuaries have complained repeatedly about the difficulty of getting good experience data. Developing better LTCI-specific data standards might be one way to improve the experience data, Hampel said.
For a look at what other exhibitors from outside the ranks of LTCI issuers and distributors were saying, read on.
5. Some LTCI producers need better liability insurance.
Scott Reid was at the show to promote the National Association of Professional Agents (NAPA), and to persuade LTCI agents to beef up their own coverage.
Most LTCI agents have errors and omissions (E&O) coverage, but about 20 percent are going bare, and as many as 80 percent may need data breach and cyber liability protection, Reid said.
Many agents think their E&O coverage will protect them against data breach problems, but the typical E&O policy does not, Reid added.
Most LTCI agents understand that they are "business associates" for purposes of complying with the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) health information privacy and data security provisions, but many are hazy on just how to protect themselves, Reid said.
Agents "know how to sell insurance, but they're sometimes reluctant to buy it for themselves," Reid said.
4. Business challenges can create opportunities.
TriPlus Services Inc. is an example of a company that has found a way to zig when others zag.
The company is an offshoot of a company that was formed to buy blocks of LTCI business that wanted to get out of the LTCI market.
TriPlus itself assumes no LTCI risk. It simply provides services for LTCI blocks that involve no insurance risk.
One of the company's specialties happens to be knowing how to increase LTCI rates. There's an art to rate increase support, and TriPlus has it down cold.
"The right outcomes are achieved through planning and coordination of actuarial justification preparation, rate increase structure and design, state filing and negotiation, customized policyholder communications, call center specialization, policy modification counseling, and thorough documentation of policyholder actions," the company says in a brochure.
See also: Connecticut posts LTCI rate filings
