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Life Health > Long-Term Care Planning

Why the New Old Age Could Be Different

By Allison Bell

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Long-term care insurers want to cut benefits costs by keeping the insureds healthy.

Company staffers heard about efforts to fight dementia and frailty last week in San Diego, at the latest annual ILTCI Conference.

Teams from organization’s like Assured Allies, The Helper Bees and WellSaid.ai briefed attendees on the latest analytical strategies, classes and coaching programs.

Some speakers and exhibitors talked about medical research: Maria Carrillo, the chief science officer at the Alzheimer’s Association, reported that drug companies were putting more than 140 separate dementia treatments through clinical trials.

What it means: Traditionally, the need for long-term care has increased sharply after people turn 85. The baby boomers will begin turning 85 in 2031.

Insurers are hoping new drugs and intervention programs will help them manage the wave of care claims that will roll in after 2031, just as they used wars against tuberculosis and cigarettes to reduce life and health claims.

ILTCI: Insurers, brokers, actuaries and others began organizing the Intercompany Long-Term Care Insurance Conference series in 2005.

Since then, the conference suffered from the product pricing problems that plagued stand-alone long-term care insurance issuers.

But ILTCI soldiered on. This year’s conference reflected the recent resurgence in interest in long-term care planning products.

Companies like Mutual of Omaha and National Guardian Life promoted stand-alone coverage. EquiTrust Life, Lincoln Financial and Nationwide had exhibit hall booths promoting products that combine care benefits with life insurance.

Claim fighters: Representatives from The Helper Bees, a company that helps match people who need home care with service providers, discussed the value of mental stimulation and their new BBC Maestro deal, which will give older clients access to video courses designed especially for older adults.

Assured Allies executives presented findings from a study of about 135,000 LTCI insureds who had three years of access to its well-being scoring and independence support coaching program.

For the insureds who opted into the program, the program appeared to reduce average monthly disabled lives in force by about 7% and keep the participants independent longer, according to the firm.

If the insureds who declined to opt in were sicker than the opt-ins, their claims incidence would probably have increased over the three-year study period, the firm said.

Instead, the opt-outs’ claims held steady.

That suggests that the opt-ins’ claims fell because of the Assured Allies program, not because the insureds who signed up for the program were healthier than the other insureds, the firm said.

Credit: Konstantin Sutyagin/Fotolia

Allison Bell

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