Join our Senior Care Advisor, Kathy Borsh, and her colleague Thomas Torr, Esq, for an educational workshop, Navigating Senior Care Choices: How to prepare yourself and your aging loved ones.
Click the flyer image below to zoom in for more details. Hosted by Wentworth Douglass Hospital in New Hampshire.
Just to follow up to our last post, which was about the Long Term Care Partnership Program related to Maine policy holders, New Hampshire is also a Partnership State. So if you hold a Long Term Care Insurance policy in New Hampshire, be sure to check with your insurance carrier to find out if your policy is eligible in the Partnership Program.
Unfortunately, Massachusetts is not a Partnership state. If you are concerned about your long term care planning and funding, give us a call.
ME 207-210-6498
MA 978-2281071
NH 603-501-9010
This morning I went to the Cumberland County Networking Group for Senior Service Providers at Sedgewood Commons in Falmouth, Maine. It was a great meeting and I enjoyed talking to some old colleagues and some new faces. But the highlight of the morning was the presentation on Long Term Care Planning by Patricia Nelson-Reade, R.N., CELA. Patty is a friend and colleague – we often work together for mutual clients.
Today Patty told the group about The Long Term Care Partnership Act. The gist: this act can help you save hundreds of thousands of dollars potentially. Yet, most people are unaware of its existence – including quite a few insurance professionals.
Here are the details:
The Long Term Care Partnership Act “permits purchasers of ‘approved’ long term care insurance policies to protect from Medicaid an amount of assets equal to the amount of the long term care insurance if the purchaser relies on Medicaid after exhaustion of the long term care insurance.” (quoted from Patty’s blog: http://www.pnrelderlaw.com/misconceptions.php). So in other words, if you purchased an LTCI policy with a $300,000 payout, and you have activated a claim on your policy, you may access MaineCare when your assets are equal to or below $310,000 as opposed to the normal asset limit of $10,000 for a single person without an approved LTCI policy.
Sounds great, right? But the problem is that with the passing of this Act in 2009, it only covered policies sold after the enactment date, which does little for the vast majority of policy holders out there. And insurance companies were refusing to reissue older policies with new policies that could be endorsed in the Partnership Program, even if the old policies met the eligibility criteria because the insurance companies had no incentive to do so and were not required by the Act to do so. So in 2011, Maine added a statute to the Act that said insurance companies must reissue all policies that qualify for the Partnership Program as long as the policy holder submits a request by the determined deadline – September 28, 2012.
If you purchased an LTCI policy prior to July 1, 2009, contact your insurance provider today to find out if you can reissue your policy to take advantage of this incredible program.
If you would like more information, or need to consult an elder law attorney on this matter, contact the law offices of Patricia Nelson-Reade at 207-828-1597, or visit their website at www.pnrelderlaw.com.
