A team of state insurance regulators may soon begin work on a model law that states could use to set rules for short-term care insurance policies.
The Senior Issues Task Force, part of the Kansas City, Missouri-based National Association of Insurance Commissioners, is looking into the idea of setting up a new Short Duration Long-Term Care Policies Subgroup.
The subgroup would work on creating a model to “address long-term care products of short duration” that are excluded from the NAIC’s existing long-term care insurance models but do not fit well under the NAIC’s model law and model regulation for accident and sickness insurance.
The task force has put creating the subgroup on its agenda for a session at the NAIC’s upcoming fall meeting. The session is set to start at 2 p.m. Dec. 10 in Miami.
Related: Short-term care insurance gets its own regulator panel
The federal government leaves regulation of most insurance matters to the states.
The NAIC is a group for state insurance regulators. The group does not have the direct ability to set state laws or regulations, but states use NAIC models, or examples of what insurance, laws and explanatory materials might look like, to develop their own insurance laws, regulations and guidance.
The NAIC models for long-term care insurance apply to products that cover nursing home care, home health care and other forms of post-acute care for periods of one year or more.
The accident and sickness models apply to health-related insurance products, such as dental insurance and disability insurance, that fall outside the scope of the NAIC’s major medical insurance models and long-term care insurance models.
The Senior Issues Task Force recently created a Short Term Health Policies Providing Long-Term Care Benefits Subgroup to talk about the idea of creating model.