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: Feature article discussing combination long-term care products.

Description: Newsletters provide practical information for the working actuary, articles on trends that impact sections and news about section activities.

Description: The last decade or more has proven that premium rate increases are necessary to maintain the integrity of most blocks of LTCi policies. Along with those rate increases, carriers have offered and regulators have approved an evolving menu of rate increase mitigation options for policyholders that do not wish to pay the increased rate. Recently, carriers and regulators have become more and more innovative in the rate increase mitigation options that they have presented to regulators. This article will discuss both the common and creative options that carriers are offering their insureds in the event of rate increases, including policy buys out, adjustments to coverage levels, and enhanced non-forfeiture options.

Description: A summary of each seminar from the 2019 Intercompany Long-Term Care Insurance (ILTCI) Conference Association meeting.

Description: How does spousal contagion influence long-term care needs? This article provides high-level results of spousal claim analysis and discusses potential implications to the LTC insurance market.

Description: Long-term care policy buyouts have been discussed within the industry lately as an additional policyholder option alongside a premium rate increase. This article discusses potential advantages and disadvantages of long-term care policy buyouts from the perspective of insurance carriers, regulators, and policyholders. It also explores certain key actuarial considerations relating to long-term care policy buyouts including potential approaches to valuing a buyout, adverse selection, and reinsurance.

Description: Stakeholders in a specific state (Minnesota) were interviewed about the potential value -- and obstacles -- of a catastrophic backstop program to handle long term care (LTC) financing needs. The design would entail a payroll deduction which would produce a fund to pay LTC expenses once a deductible period (of 1 to 4 years, depending on income) was reached. This design was believed to encourage enrollees to cover the front end better than done today, whether by private insurance or other means.

Description: Asset Adequacy Analysis for the Long-Term Care Product: A Case Study by Amy Pahl from Long-Term Care Newsletter, December 2004, Issue No. 13.

Description: The goals of the first Annual LTC Operations and Technology Benchmark Survey were to develop time and cost benchmarks for LTC operations, identify the most pressing operations and technology issues, and gain insight into the technologies that are being used to administer long-term care business.