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November is Long-Term Care Awareness Month

How would you pay for long-term care services such as a visiting nurse, assisted living, therapy or a personal care aid if you needed them? Could you easily pull $200,000 from your retirement nest egg to pay for three-years in a nursing home?

According to the 2011 Genworth Cost of Care Survey one year in a nursing home can cost more than $70,445 today, and that cost continues to rise. Long-term care (LTC) insurance is the one financial tool that can help you prepare for these costs in the future. With this protection, you will be able to maintain more independence should you need long-term care. You may be able to stay in your home longer, and you’ll have more choices about your long-term care services and providers in the future. That’s why it is critical to investigate long-term care insurance to determine if it should be a part of your overall financial strategy.

 While most consumers know something about long-term care and can access information about the topic, several misconceptions surrounding long-term care insurance still persist. Additionally, there are a number of tips you should think about when buying the product. Let’s look at two of the most common fallacies about long-term care insurance and two helpful tips to consider when putting together your long-term care plan.

  Misconceptions

One pervasive misconception is that other insurance and government programs will cover long-term care costs. Long-term care usually involves non-medical assistance with basic daily activities like dressing, bathing, or using the toilet.  In fact, many long-term care services that help with these tasks are  not  typically covered by other kinds of insurance, including health and disability insurance. Only long-term care insurance policies help cover the day-to-day assistance you need when you have a chronic illness, disability, or cognitive impairment and need help with activities of daily living such as eating, bathing, or toileting.

Intel and GE Team Up to Make Home Health Devices disability news ...

Intel and General Electric are creating a new company that will provide medical care and assistive technologies to the elderly and people with chronic illnesses, according to BusinessWeek .

Intel and GE hope to bring more health care devices into homes, which they say will help lower health care costs and increase the quality of life for those living with disability, chronic illnesses like diabetes and age-related diseases such as Alzheimers.

“Chronic conditions account for more than 75 percent of health care spending in the U.S.,” says Omar Ishrak, senior vice president of GE and president and CEO of GE Healthcare Systems.

Intel has been making its foray into the heath devices field, and in November 2009 launched the Intel Reader , an device that combines a high-resolution camera and optical character recognition to take a picture of a book – and read it aloud — to people with vision impairments and learning disorders. GE offers consulting and sells medical devices in areas that include cardiology and oncology.

Intel and GE will each own half of the new venture, which is expected to launch by the end of the year. The company’s name has not been made public yet.

Still, the companies face a challenge with getting such devices paid for by most health insurers and public systems like Medicare, who won’t cover the cost of most in-home care or medical devices. Medicare only pays for time-limited, medically necessary skilled nursing facility care or home health care if certain conditions are met.

Health care reform may alleviate some of these issues. For example, the New Community Living Assistance Services and Supports (CLASS) Program is a national voluntary insurance program that will be available after October 2012 to help pay for services and supports in the home. People over age 18 who are working will have the opportunity to enroll in the CLASS Program, and after contributing to the program for five years, will get a minimum of $50 a day in cash benefits to help pay for supports.

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