• Recently Written

  • Life Insurance And The Underwriting
  • Is Claim And Blame Culture Taking Over?
  • Search Engine Marketing Meltdown
  • How To Find Someone For Free In Texas
  • The Dental Woes of Unhappy Patients…
  • The Dental Woes of Unhappy Patients…
  • Halloween Contact Lens - What Is It?
  • Get Good Selective Information about Health Insurance Plans
  • How to Get Find a Responsible Student Health Insurance?
  • Use A Comparison Website To Save Money On Your Car Insurance

• Categories

  • Life Insurance

• Archives

  
  World Changer Mall
  increase Web site traffic
  • January 2010
  • December 2009
  • November 2009
  • October 2009
  • September 2009
  • August 2009
  • July 2009
  • June 2009
  • May 2009
  • April 2009
  • March 2009
  • February 2009
  • January 2009
  • December 2008
  • November 2008

• Search

The New York Times recently published an article, Caring for the Caregivers, and while I read the piece, I merely shook my head a few times thinking about the implications in the article and what I know from my perspective in the eldercare industry. First thing I learned in this business is that when it is acceptable people would want to age in place, meaning live in their homes with whatever help, be it homecare and/or technology, they need for as long as they can. America’s aging population is increasing and there is also an ongoing shortage of homecare aides to help this burgeoning group do what they want, which is to stay comfortably in their own homes.

But, as the article pointed out:

” According to the Labor Department, personal and home care aides are expected to be the second fastest-growing occupation in the United States from 2006–2016, increasing by 51 percent, slightly behind the expected growth in systems and data communications analysts. “

And who exactly are these people who come into the home to care for your parents? The NY Times article points it out succinctly, ” most home care aides are women, low income and minority, and many of them are immigrants. ” And although some of the states have taken steps to give them basic labor protections, most of these women work for agencies that under the existing federal guidelines are allowed to mark them as companions, leaving them with no rights to overtime and minimum wages. This is not to say all agencies take advantage of this fact, there are lots of agencies that have realized the efficiency of low-staff turnover and treating their workers accordingly. This sector of healthcare is growing rapidly and yet many of its workers are not protected. And they should be, because they are the backbone of the aging in place movement; the ones supporting and tending to the needs of our elders in their homes.  So what’s being done about this issue?

Right now, the Service Employees International Union is working to unionize homecare workers in every state. Washington and Montana have unionized homecare workers, while here in California, in-fighting is still ongoing between unions. Many have voiced the opinion that new legislation has to be passed by the Labor Department to offer greater federal protection for homecare workers. I believe this is the best way to keep these workers safe. (Yep, that’s a nudge, President Obama, but I do realize you are very busy these days.) In the end, it all circles back to quality of care. Happy, well-paid, well-trained workers who work for agencies with low turnover are, and will always be, the ones delivering the highest quality of long term care to our mothers, fathers and possible even us one day.

There are tips that will help you enjoy serious savings without putting compromising quality. Would you like to know them? If so, these tips will go a long way in helping you achieve just that|If this describes you then read through this article for time-tested tips…

1. Some states give home business owners a chance to bring down their cost. States that offer this opportunity have regulations that make it compulsory that insurance carriers give home business owners the same rates as they do big businesses.

In a number of states a home business is eligible for a group rate once it has one employee. 

You can have your spouse or older kid work as a member of staff. Moreover, you’ll still be eligible if that single member of staff works only part time.

This option gives cheaper rates because group rates are normally cheaper than rates for individuals.

To check if you qualify or even if your state has such a provision, call your state’s department of insurance, department of financial services or their equivalent.

2. You’ll realize more savings in health insurance if you are not rigid in your choice of health care providers. This is because you may be required to restrict yourself to doctors and hospitals in a certain network for you to enjoy certain low rates. And in such a situation you would be compelled to change to health care providers in the network and not your favorites. 

If you consider this to be too much for you to sacrifice then you can forget about lowering your rate this way. Notwithstanding that you’re asked to be flexible, be certain that you also get what will serve your best interest on the long run.

Free health insurance quote online!

3. Did you know that your co-pay could cost you more than the cost of your drugs? There are also situations where it is cheaper if you don’t use your health insurance but buy a prescription from your purse. Know which is best in each case and do what profits you more.

Being careful enough to always check will help you make considerable savings over time.

4. A poor driving history can make you pay higher health insurance rates. If you have many speeding tickets or a history of street racing you will spend much more. An individual who drives roughly might make a claim soon as they’re more likely to need medical attention.

You will lower your costs if you develop a the right attitude behind wheels. If you drive a sports car or power bike, you will likely pay much more for health insurance. The plain reason remains that you increase the chances that you’ll make claims soon.

5. In the majority of cases, your routine medical check ups would not cost you a dime more as most health insurance plans wouuld likely include up to two complimentary medical check ups for you yearly.

It results in savings because the cost of nipping health conditions in their benign stages is much less than treating full blown ailments. And, anything that makes your insurer spend less on you makes your rates more affordable.

Free instant health insurance quote

Colorado family health insurance

Are you sure you seriously want lower health insurance rates? If answered “Yes” you must do all within your power to uncover as many ways as there are to cheaper rates. I’ve got enough ideas to help most people save up to 50% on insurance…

1. There are medication that are big brand names. Drugs that are well established are more expensive than equally-effective drugs with less brand recognition and so increase your cost. But will you believe it if I told you that all generic drugs are required by law to have the same measure of active ingredients as brand name drugs? Where they can have any difference is in the inactive agents.

The truth then is that you only pay more when you use an established brand name drug and do NOT enjoy anything extra in value. Nevertheless, make sure you ask a doctor you can really trust about this before you make your final decision.

2. You’ll get cheaper premiums if you pay by Electronic Funds Transfer (EFT). This authorizes an insurance [provider] to automatically withdraw your premiums from your account when due. This saves costs by eliminating the need for payment notices or checks. Your rate is therefore lowered in line with the lower cost of providing insurance to you.

Online health insurance quotation!

3.  If in your case it’s tough to get standard health insurance carrier because of an unfavorable medical history you can apply for COBRA insurance. For those who don’t know COBRA is the abbreviation for Consolidated Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act of 1985.

4. A Flexible Spending Account helps you as you look for ways to make massive savings. You can keep tax-free dollars to cater for your health needs. You can in addition roll over any money you didn’t use in one year to the subsequent year tax-free. This gives you a tax free method of building big reserves of funds to cater for your future health needs.

5. In the majority of cases, your routine medical check ups won’t cost you a dime more since your health insurance plan wouuld probably have up to two complimentary medical check ups for you annually.

In case you want to know why this brings about cheaper rates, here it is…

It does because the cost of treating ailments in their early stages is cheaper than treating full blown diseases. This means that your health insurance carrier will pay less to treat you if diseases are diagnosed at their early stages.

Therefore, they give you lower rates for reducing the cost for your treatment.

Individual health insurance quote online

Alabama health insurance online quote

If you are thinking about hiring a car in South Africa you need to read this article first. It will highlight 5 ways to book the car. Take a few minutes to go through the article and you will be glad you did. This is one of many articles I have posted about rent car Joburg schemes.

As mentioned above, my experience on the car hire industry in SA spans a couple of reviews and articles posted all over the net, today, however, I want to focus on some of the most useful ways to book a car. Just read right through to the end before you make your final choice.

You can rent one at the Airports

There are 3 international airports in the country i.e. OR Tambo International Airport in Johannesburg, Durban International Airport and Cape Town International Airport. In all these you can find a car rental company. In fact you can find a number of companies like AVIS, Imperial-Europcar, Hertz, Budget to mention just a few. All of this means you can book your ticket and not really worry about the car as you will have options to choose from when you get to the airport. For example, if you want to be near a beach you can rent a car in Cape Town or find the best KZN-car hire company.

Let me point out that these companies can also be found in most of the local or domestic airports. This is good if you are interested in renting a car after you connect to a domestic airport from the international ones.

Find Then In Major Cities

Car rental companies are all over the country. For example you can find more than twenty locations for Imperial car rental, Avis also has many branches countrywide. This essentially means you can never be stranded wherever you are in South Africa and you can just find a car anywhere e.g. in lesster known areas like Bellville - cheap cars for rental are everywhere .

If I were to mention a few of these areas they would have to be as follows; George, Plettenberg Bay, Sandton, Randburg, Johannesburg, Cape Town, Port Elizabeth, Pretoria, Pine Town, Nelspruit,  Bloemfontein, Hermanus, Stellenbosch, Paarl, Knysna, etc.

You can book right inside the hotels

I know for a fact that some of the most prominent hotels in the country offer some car rental services. So just get their shuttle to take you at the airport to the hotel and only rent a car when you get there.

Book from your country

Another option is to simply find a company that operates both in South Africa as well as in your country. Just book the South African car from there and when you get to the airport you will simply go to their office to pick up the car.

Book online

One of the best things about booking online is that you usually get a better rate regardless of the country you are currently in. If you ask me, this is the only best way to use when trying to book your car in South Africa.

For those who are not familiar with the term, underwriting means the acceptance of risk in return for payment. In long term care insurance, this occurs when an applicant becomes a policyholder, paying the insurance company to accept the risk that may require them to pay out claims on the applicant’s behalf. Many people wonder what the underwriting process and the application process for long-term care insurance are about and how all of it works. I’ll discuss all of that in this article. Why is underwriting necessary? The answer to this question has to do with how insurance functions.

Think of this kind of insurance as a pool of money into which different parties and events have made deposits. These funds can then be used to pay for the money losses of each individual depositors who have had to make a claim due to unforeseen circumstances. In the case of long-term continuous care, the funds could be used to pay for custodial care for the individual policyholders who may have developed a need for this type of care.

One primary objective of underwriting is to spread the risk among the pool of policyholders as equitably as possible in a manner that is also profitable for the insurance company. The premiums in which each of the policyholder needs to pay are directly affected by how much money the insurance holder expects to have to pay out for claims. This can only mean that the insurance company has to manage the risk that it will have to pay money out of that central pool of funds. The more they have to pay out, the higher the cost of the insurance for everyone. Risk management involves analyzing the potential risks for each applicant (and the associated costs of those risks) in order to set premium rates for policyholders and mitigate the potential financial losses for the insurer.

How are long-term care insurance premiums calculated? To manage the payout risk, each insurance carrier employs underwriting procedures to make sure that applicants with high-risk medical histories are not allowed into the insurance pool, which would thereby drive up the cost for everyone else. Obviously, while the risk taken by the insurer directly informs the premium rates that policyholders must pay, there are different levels of risk which are reflected the different premium rates. This is actually how a long term care insurance company determines the premium rate that you will pay, in which I will further explain in a future article.  What underwriting procedures are employed? One of the first thing of underwriting that all carriers use is the application form where the applicant lists his or her relevant history of personal health and authorizes the insurance company to examine their medical records.

More often, the carrier will schedule a phone health interview that lasts for about fifteen to twenty minutes. One of the main purposes of this telephone call is to assure the carrier that the applicant should not have any cognitive problems that would become evident in the way the phone conversation is conducted.  After this, the carrier will then request a copy of the medical records from the applicant’s primary care physician to verify that person;s overall health. Once the applicant has been treated by a specialist for any serious illness in recent years, a copy of those medical records may be requested as well.  This is where the whole process can sometimes bog down for a few weeks if the doctor’s office does not process the record request quickly. However, once the carrier receives the medical records, a final underwriting decision usually follows very quickly.

No one likes to pay insurance premiums of any kind and long term care insurance is no exception. We pay these premiums because the alternative leaves our retirement income and investment assets exposed to high risk if long-term care becomes necessary and we have to pay for the care ourselves. It is no secret that the cost of health care facilities care can quickly drain a retirement nest egg and force a retiree into financial ruin. By purchasing long-term care insurance, a policyholder is accepting a small loss each year in the form of premiums paid. This small loss helps ensure that he or she will not be wiped out financially by unmanageable long-term care costs in the future.

3 Choices for Premium Payment Periods

People who are unfamiliar with long-term care insurance often think about how long the premiums will need to be paid. The answer is that there are three choices for the premium payment period usually offered by insurance carriers. The most popular choice by far is a ” lifetime ” payment period that requires the payment of premiums until death or until the policy is started. Some object to paying these premiums for such a long period of time. My reply to these objections is that I usually ask prospective clients to consider other forms of insurance that they most likely own. For instance, would they expect to only pay premiums for health or would they prefer medical insurance for a short time only, or do they plan on paying those premiums for life? Would’t they expect to pay auto insurance premiums for as long as they drive? Isn’t it reasonable to pay homeowners insurance premiums as long as they own a house? As long as the financial risk is present, the payment of insurance premiums is prudent. Since the risk of needing long-term care is present for as long as we live, the premiums for long-term care insurance can be expected for the remainder of our life.

Shorter Premium Payment Periods Equal Higher Premiums

The second and third options for payment of long term care premiums allow the policyholder to condense all of those expected premium payments into a shorter time period. For those under fifty-five years of age, a ” pay to age sixty-five ” option may make sense. For others a ” ten-year pay ” option can also be a good choice. Because the expected premium payments over a lifetime are simply put together into a shorter timeframe, the cost of these premiums is much higher. Therefore, these options usually make sense for policyholders who can take advantage of tax deductions that help them reduce the overall cost of their long-term care insurance.

A vital ingredient in any successful long-term care insurance plan is to have an affordable policy without sacrificing good coverage. If you receive quotes from several highly rated insurers and yet find that the premiums are still too much to bear, there is no need to panic and assume that long term care insurance costs too much. You may be able to adjust the benefit amounts of the original quotes to bring the premiums more in line with your expectations, thus ensuring an affordable policy.

Know the Costs of Long-term Care Where You Live

One of the many ways to lower premium costs is to make sure that you know what the actual costs of care are in your area. There are lots of statistics used when discussing long-term care costs and these are always based on national averages. The actual cost of home care, nursing homes and assisted living facilities in your particular area may be much lower. You can always find out more about local long-term care costs by simply downloading the latest Genworth Cost of Care Guide or by calling a few local home care agencies and long-term care facilities to ask for comparison rates.

Adjust Your Benefit Period

Another different method to lower long-term care insurance premiums is to use a shorter benefit period. Many consumers feel that unlimited benefits are necessary for good coverage. A recent study published by the American Association for Long-Term Care Insurance in their 2009 Sourcebook revealed that only eight percent of those who buy a three-year benefit period exhaust the policy and still need care. Only a little over one percent of those with a five-year benefit period will see their claims closed because of policy exhaustion. This means that lowering the benefit period can be a practical way to lower insurance costs without sacrificing vital coverage.

Reexamine the Elimination Period

Another way to bring down long-term care insurance premiums is to increase the elimination period (the number of days after your care begins that precedes the insurance company’s first payment of claims).

Take note that almost 90% of individual continuous care insurance policies uses a period of elimination between ninety and one hundred days according to the same 2009 Sourcebook referenced above. If you have initial quotes used a thirty-day or sixty-day elimination period, you may be able to significantly lower the premiums by choosing a ninety-day elimination period instead. Remember that there are other ways that an experienced long-term care specialist can help make this kind of insurance more affordable for you. If you ask for suggestions on bringing down your premiums, the specialist will be happy to work with you to craft a long-term care insurance policy that is effective and affordable.

Private insurance companies usually sells LTCI policies to offset the costs of long term care. LTCI, like all insurance policies, requires premiums to help recipients avoid paying large amounts of money in the event of an illness or an accident. Premiums are based on the individual’s age by the time of the purchase and are always locked in for the life of the insurance policy. LTCI covers the following, {depending on the policy you choose: and is dependent on the policy that you choose:}

1.Care in a skilled nursing facility

2.Care in an assisted living facility

3.Home health care

4.Adult day health care

When buying a LTCI policy, it allows the policyholder to select from many options, such as the amount of the daily benefit, the number of years that the policy will pay benefits, and, after the applicant qualifies for a policy, the number of months or days before the policy will begin paying benefits.

It is imperative to evaluate the policies carefully to see which one offers the benefits you require with a premium that will fit your budget. Policies differ in their benefits, contract conditions, deductibles and premiums. It is also important to think about the rising cost of health care. Always make sure that the LTCI inflation protection for benefits to increase as health care costs continue to rise. Policies are labeled according to the place in which their benefits are paid.

Homecare-only policies pay for care at home and in an adult day care or adult day health care facilities. Make sure the policy includes both types of day care. Facility-only policies pay for care in a skilled nursing facility and in an assisted living facility. These comprehensive policies pay for care in a skilled nursing facility, assisted living facility, adult day care or adult day health care facility, and at home.

Since LTCI claims are often paid many years after the purchase of the policy, it is imperative to check the following:  The financial strength of the company. Some of the industry’s major rating services are A.M. Best , Duff and Phelps, Moody’s, Standard and Poor’s and Weiss Ratings . Claims and reputation pays the history of the company. Contact your State Insurance Department for information on specific private insurance companies.

Applicant must be healthy at the time of application. Each insurance company has individual requirements and/or limitations. Not sure when is the right time to buy an LTCI policy? Or how to assess what you will need from a policy? Visit our Expert Column on Financing Long Term Care to find out more.

Planning for long term care is complicated. Each person’s needs are unique, so therfore, the cost of long term care differs greatly. Some social and physical assistance is available for free or at a low cost, while very expensive nursing home or home health facilities can have an expense of $200 per day or maybe even more. There are lots of different ways to finance long-term care. You will probably need to use a combination of payment sources, which may include Medicare, Medicaid, long-term care insurance and other programs, in addition to your own resources.

It is essential to consult a professional such as an elder law attorney, financial planner or an accountant when planning for long-term care, this person should be well versed in estate planning, public programs like Medicaid, and the issues and needs of older persons. These long term care professionals often work as a team. Gilbert Guide would like to suggest getting a second opinion before making any final decision on financial matters. Check out our Learning Centers and Expert Columns where our long-term care experts point you in the right direction, raising awareness of the issues you need to know about when planning for your future.

Here are many of the options available to reimburse for senior care: (Click on the links below to see what else is covered outside of long-term care.)  For Medicare, which is for continuous care, covers some skilled nursing care either in a nursing home or in the home along with hospice care.  Medicaid, the partially federally funded, but state-operated program provides medical care for certain low-income individuals and families who have limited resources. Medicaid usually covers nursing home care, however for some certain states, funding is available for assisted living, homecare or home health care.

For Medigap, whose policies are available to Medicare, A & B enrollees who are not Medicaid recipients can sign up for and covers some nursing home care.  Managed Care (HMO) provide expert services for nursing home care above Medicare’s basic offering along with additional medical assistance outside of long-term care. Long-term Care Insurance (LTCI) actually covers everything, from non-medical homecare to nursing care; however, it depends on the type of policy you purchased. Veterans Benefits will cover adult day health care, home health care, respite care and hospice care.

In a long term care insurance (LTCI) policy, take note that the elimination period is often called as the policy deductuble. In many ways it is similar to the deductible used in major medical insurance policies. One significant difference is this: rather than a certain dollar amount that you will initially pay for your own care expenses, there is a specified number of days for which you will be the one responsible for your own care.What are My Options? These days very few carriers offer a zero-day elimination period. The most common choices are 30, 60, 90, 180 and 365 days, although these periods can vary from one carrier to another. The choice of 180 or 365 days is most often made by those who have significant assets of their own. Choosing a longer period can help keep the expenses of LTCI extremely low.

Although if one selects a 90-day elimination period, the amount of funds put at risk is miniscule once compared to the asset protection afforded by the total pool of a policy’s benefits.What is a Reasonable Choice for an Elimination Period? Some of the popular financial authors suggest setting it as low as possible, perhaps even at zero. It’s true that once the elimination period is short, the less likely it is that you will have to pay out when the time comes for you to begin receiving continuous care.

On the other hand, low elimination periods can have a dramatic effect on the premiums that you pay throughout the life of the policy. Usually some form of compromise is a neccessity for the sake of affordability. In deciding the elimination period, many policyholders remember that insurance is often used as a way to avoid suffering catastrophic financial losses rather than insuring against every possible expense. Accepting a small portion of the risk involved can be an economical and reasonable choice for most people.

The Smartest Thing You Can Do: What’s right for most people, however, may not be right for you. In deciding on the best elimination period for your own situation, it is prudent to consider what the cost would be for the most expensive assisted care that you may have to receive, which is most often facility care. Once you have a good idea of the daily costs for facility care in your area, simply multiply the costs by the various elimination period choices and determine the amount that you feel is affordable.

Once you have decided on the elimination period that will best fit your situation, earmark those funds for your care, and allow them to grow so that they keeps pace with inflation, at the very least.  Using a little financial common sense goes a long way toward making a wise decision about the LTCI elimination period.

← Previous Page — Next Page →