My partner is an elder millennial (he and I were both born in 1982). He is a full time family caregiver who has already given ten years to caring for his mother with Parkinson’s. The majority of his mother’s retirement was stolen by his abusive older brother, leaving them / us in a very challenging financial situation. (Im a mid senior professional in the nonprofit sector who has been in a three plus year search for a new full time role during a fraught and exceedingly competitive time in the sector. I currently am earning far below my worth in a fractional role and intermittent consulting projects. Before he became a caregiver, my partner’s only experience was in retail, local bookstores. He’d just finished his MFA in creative writing and was planning to take a job at a publishing house that he had to give up for caregiving. For the last couple of years, he has received a small amount of compensation through a state program, which helps a bit. In addition to insecurity around survival needs, the financial situation has also greatly delayed or in some cases prevented investments that would’ve improved his mom’s care and quality of life … the exercise bike (finally got, years after he first wanted it), the pure wick to prevent UTIs, which cause significant cognitive problems for Parkinson’s folks (still only use intermittently because of the cost of supplies), adequate transportation to get to physical therapy appointments at a deeply respected mobility center (made it work on transit and Uber for one session but had to drop out partway through another), etc. If you asked Brandon, he would say it is the financial situation, and not the Parkinson’s, that has been their worst challenge. … so beyond his mom’s care, there is his own financial picture: unpaid student loans, ten years and counting of lost income and opportunity to advance in his writing career (currently scrambling to finish several books in the small gaps around care demands), time that he will absolutely never be able to make up, especially with his minimal resume.
I'm so glad you shared this. You've living it. It's terribly stressful when you don't have enough for today and worry if you'll have enough for tomorrow. Just a devastating situation. Please keep us posted as you can. Thanks to you and Brandon for all you do. It's just awful you have to pay such a high price to do it.
Family caregivers need financial support. Where are you proposing this financial support comes from? We have been in the LTCi industry for 30+ years. Policies used to include a provision for paid family caregivers, but most modern policies have removed this feature due to fraud concerns. Do you have ideas on how to reduce or eliminate fraud for reimbursing families from LTCi policies?
We are part of thought leadership through CLTC and would love to provide feedback from frontline caregivers.
I’m still crunching the numbers for revenue source using a model adopted by several states: Marriage license fee surcharges fund domestic violence prevention programs. Can you share more about fraud within LTC policies? Curious about the numbers (what percentage of policy holders had fraudulent claims from family members and the dollar amount of the fraud.)
I did try to find the percentage of policyholders with fraudulent claims from family members and the dollar amount involved. I couldn't find it published anywhere. What I found instead is that the exclusion of family caregivers is written into policy design, not backed by a fraud rate anyone has released.
Fraud happens in every reimbursed care category. Hospice has had real, well documented fraud in specific markets. Home health has too. Neither category lost its ability to be reimbursed because of it. Bad actors got investigated, and the categories stayed intact.
So if fraud is the reason family caregivers were excluded, the same logic should apply here that applies everywhere else. Investigate and remove the bad actors. Don't remove reimbursement for an entire category over a risk that might not be quantified.
I'd genuinely welcome CLTC's numbers if you have them.
Insurers do not publish fraud numbers. As a whole, the industry quietly removed the ability to pay family caregivers from TRADITIONAL LTCi policies. Traditional LTCi is a reimbursement model. There are other insurance products (Life/Hybrid) that offer indemnity for LTC expenses. Those products CAN be used to pay family caregivers. This is a question we ask our clients as we help them plan ahead for LTC costs.
CLTC is an industry organization that educates agents and consumers. If you want real change, contact the NAIC (National Association of Insurance Commissioners) to lobby them to pressure the insurers to put it back into their policies. The NAIC is responsible for positive changes in the LTCi industry, such as the Rate Stability Regulation, which 41 states have enacted. If each state starts mandating that family caregivers be paid, then any new LTCi policy approved in that state must have that provision. It's a place to start, in addition to lobbying for a small hospital tax or another licensure tax to fund a state-run family caregiving pool.
It is topics such as these that we discuss at the CLTC conference, to brainstorm ideas to improve the caregiving space. Even though we sell insurance, we are frontrunners in helping people think about and plan ahead, and we know well that family is the one that tends to provide care, even with insurance. We did ourselves, even though my mother had an LTCi policy, I was also her caregiver....unpaid.
Lots of insurance reimbursement requires certification from an expert, sometimes a doctor. My mom’s doctor could easily certify that I am her caregiver, and moreover, that without my assistance she’d be in the hospital constantly. I don’t understand why “fraud” in this case is more of a sticking point than it is in any other sort of insurance.
My partner is an elder millennial (he and I were both born in 1982). He is a full time family caregiver who has already given ten years to caring for his mother with Parkinson’s. The majority of his mother’s retirement was stolen by his abusive older brother, leaving them / us in a very challenging financial situation. (Im a mid senior professional in the nonprofit sector who has been in a three plus year search for a new full time role during a fraught and exceedingly competitive time in the sector. I currently am earning far below my worth in a fractional role and intermittent consulting projects. Before he became a caregiver, my partner’s only experience was in retail, local bookstores. He’d just finished his MFA in creative writing and was planning to take a job at a publishing house that he had to give up for caregiving. For the last couple of years, he has received a small amount of compensation through a state program, which helps a bit. In addition to insecurity around survival needs, the financial situation has also greatly delayed or in some cases prevented investments that would’ve improved his mom’s care and quality of life … the exercise bike (finally got, years after he first wanted it), the pure wick to prevent UTIs, which cause significant cognitive problems for Parkinson’s folks (still only use intermittently because of the cost of supplies), adequate transportation to get to physical therapy appointments at a deeply respected mobility center (made it work on transit and Uber for one session but had to drop out partway through another), etc. If you asked Brandon, he would say it is the financial situation, and not the Parkinson’s, that has been their worst challenge. … so beyond his mom’s care, there is his own financial picture: unpaid student loans, ten years and counting of lost income and opportunity to advance in his writing career (currently scrambling to finish several books in the small gaps around care demands), time that he will absolutely never be able to make up, especially with his minimal resume.
I'm so glad you shared this. You've living it. It's terribly stressful when you don't have enough for today and worry if you'll have enough for tomorrow. Just a devastating situation. Please keep us posted as you can. Thanks to you and Brandon for all you do. It's just awful you have to pay such a high price to do it.
Thank you for everything you do, Denise. We are fortunate to have you in our corner.
You keep me going. I'm so grateful to have your good company.
Family caregivers need financial support. Where are you proposing this financial support comes from? We have been in the LTCi industry for 30+ years. Policies used to include a provision for paid family caregivers, but most modern policies have removed this feature due to fraud concerns. Do you have ideas on how to reduce or eliminate fraud for reimbursing families from LTCi policies?
We are part of thought leadership through CLTC and would love to provide feedback from frontline caregivers.
I’m still crunching the numbers for revenue source using a model adopted by several states: Marriage license fee surcharges fund domestic violence prevention programs. Can you share more about fraud within LTC policies? Curious about the numbers (what percentage of policy holders had fraudulent claims from family members and the dollar amount of the fraud.)
I did try to find the percentage of policyholders with fraudulent claims from family members and the dollar amount involved. I couldn't find it published anywhere. What I found instead is that the exclusion of family caregivers is written into policy design, not backed by a fraud rate anyone has released.
Fraud happens in every reimbursed care category. Hospice has had real, well documented fraud in specific markets. Home health has too. Neither category lost its ability to be reimbursed because of it. Bad actors got investigated, and the categories stayed intact.
So if fraud is the reason family caregivers were excluded, the same logic should apply here that applies everywhere else. Investigate and remove the bad actors. Don't remove reimbursement for an entire category over a risk that might not be quantified.
I'd genuinely welcome CLTC's numbers if you have them.
Insurers do not publish fraud numbers. As a whole, the industry quietly removed the ability to pay family caregivers from TRADITIONAL LTCi policies. Traditional LTCi is a reimbursement model. There are other insurance products (Life/Hybrid) that offer indemnity for LTC expenses. Those products CAN be used to pay family caregivers. This is a question we ask our clients as we help them plan ahead for LTC costs.
CLTC is an industry organization that educates agents and consumers. If you want real change, contact the NAIC (National Association of Insurance Commissioners) to lobby them to pressure the insurers to put it back into their policies. The NAIC is responsible for positive changes in the LTCi industry, such as the Rate Stability Regulation, which 41 states have enacted. If each state starts mandating that family caregivers be paid, then any new LTCi policy approved in that state must have that provision. It's a place to start, in addition to lobbying for a small hospital tax or another licensure tax to fund a state-run family caregiving pool.
It is topics such as these that we discuss at the CLTC conference, to brainstorm ideas to improve the caregiving space. Even though we sell insurance, we are frontrunners in helping people think about and plan ahead, and we know well that family is the one that tends to provide care, even with insurance. We did ourselves, even though my mother had an LTCi policy, I was also her caregiver....unpaid.
I love the call to action you set out for us. So helpful!!
Lots of insurance reimbursement requires certification from an expert, sometimes a doctor. My mom’s doctor could easily certify that I am her caregiver, and moreover, that without my assistance she’d be in the hospital constantly. I don’t understand why “fraud” in this case is more of a sticking point than it is in any other sort of insurance.
I agree!!