Planning for a Future of Aging in Place
Long Term Care Insurance Can Help You Stay in Your Home
No one wants to think about it, but eventually, it happens. We all get older and start to need additional assistance. Planning for when that day comes can seem daunting, but having a plan is vital for peace of mind and financial reasons.
You may have started thinking about whether you would prefer to stay in your home or move to a senior living community, assisted living, or would prefer to stay in your home. You might also consider what happens if you were to become sick or injured. Do you have adult children or family members that will help you, or will you require paid assistance or skilled care? Regardless of personal preference, you’ll want to consider the financial implications of each outcome.
While many people save for retirement and medical costs as they age, they often don’t realize that Medicare does not cover certain services until they or a loved one need care. The most sensible financial solution is long-term care insurance. The benefit of long-term care insurance is that it covers the services that Medicare does not. These services might include many of the services we offer at DayBreak Adult Care, including bathing assistance, dressing, transportation to doctor’s appointments, respite care, or after surgery care.
What Are Services I May Need That Medicare Does Not Cover?
Specifically, Medicare does not cover long-term care, and while Medicaid does offer some assistance, you have to exhaust your savings to qualify for it. Medicare will not cover the following services:
- Companionship
- Memory Care
- Assisted Living
- Assistance with in-home day-to-day tasks
- Transportation
- Nursing Home sitters
- Hospital sitters
What Are the Main Benefits of Long-Term Care Insurance and How Does it Work?
Long-term care insurance’s significant benefit is that it helps protect your savings, which leads to its second main benefit, providing the insured more options for care. To use your policy, you typically must be unable to accomplish a minimum of two of six “activities of daily living,” or “ADLs,” or you have a cognitive impairment like dementia or Alzheimer’s. These activities are classified as bathing, caring for incontinence, dressing, eating, toileting, and mobility assistance. Once you need or obtain care, you’ll file a claim with your insurance company, who will then review medical documents from your doctor and may bring in a nurse to perform an assessment. It is important to remember that your insurer will not approve your claim unless they have first approved your “plan of care.”
Typically, you will pay out of pocket for your services for anywhere from 30 to 90 days before the insurer will reimburse you for care. This time frame is the “elimination period.” Once that time frame is complete, the policy will begin to pay. Generally, long-term care policies have a daily limit for care until the lifetime maximum is reached.
At DayBreak Adult Care, we work with a variety of clients that have planned to age in place and have long term care insurance. If you’re considering our services and have long term care insurance, please give us a call to see if we work with your provider.
Source: Long-Term Care Insurance Explained - https://www.nerdwallet.com/blog/insurance/long-term-care-insurance/
