Description: To increase awareness of current research, cognitive treatments, brain exercise programs and overall long-term care, we will be adding a regular feature to the LTC Section newsletter, tentatively called the “Cognitive Corner.” This feature will provide a place to share existing academic research and health-related outcomes related to cognitive factors. It is the hope that this information will spur thought-provoking discussions and debates that impact your work regarding these hypotheses.

Description: This article is about the most significant issues and trends that may impact long-term care LTC risks, care delivery and protection in the future.

Description: Look into history of long-term care insurance industry to understand the forces that shaped current industry's position and to identify new directions.

Description: Will the Medicare Modernization Act Jump Start Growth in Employer-Sponsored Long- Term Care Insurance? by Allen J. Schmitz, FSA and Scott A. Weltz, FSA from Long-Term Care Newsletter, April 2004, Issue No. 11.

Description: Projecting Policy Persistency by Bruce Stahl from Long-Term Care Newsletter, September 2004, Issue No. 12.

Description: For a long time the primary focus of private LTC insurance companies has been to educate the public about the need for private LTC insurance and to make the product more acceptable to a wider population. To this end there have been numerous changes to the product design to make this product more acceptable to general population. However, one of the things that may have been overlooked in those product design changes is the need for alignment of policyholder and insurance company’s interests, which is to make coverage more affordable and to reduce adverse selection. Incentivizing good behavior from policyholders can not only make LTC insurance policies less expensive but also help policyholders make better health choices, which can help them stay healthy for a longer time. These incentives may also reduce some of the inherent risks in a long term care policy and may help in increasing the sales of private LTC insurance.

Description: Chairperson's corner article communicating the accomplishments and next steps for the LTC Section Council.

Description: A review of the current NAIC model regulation methodology ensuring LTC companies do not recoup past claim losses in LTC rate increases.

Description: A discussion of insurance claims processing and payment systems, and how to achieve the minimum possible number of errors.

Description: This article discusses the mechanics of a prospective approach to calculating LTC rate increases and compares it to approaches defined by previous model regs.