Where Your Long Term Care Vocabulary Will Lead You

By Author: Chelsea Andrews
Total Articles: 25
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It is not the purpose of this article to check your long term care vocabulary just for the sake of entertaining you. Familiarity with the long term care glossary is very important especially if you’re contemplating buying a long term care insurance (LTCI) policy as it carries terms that are pertinent to the basic components of an LTCI policy.

Most LTCI policies, for instance, stipulate that you have to meet two main benefit triggers before you can qualify for your LTCI policy’s benefits. Benefit trigger is already one important word that you should be familiar with as it determines whether you would qualify for your LTCI benefits or not. Benefit trigger is a requirement that you should meet before you become eligible for the benefits of your policy.

The two main benefit triggers of LTCI policies are requisition for assistance with two or more activities of daily living (ADL) for three consecutive months or 90 days, and supervision due to cognitive impairment.

If you know what the activities of daily living are then you won’t have any problem with your claims later on but if you don’t ,you ...
... better start reciting eating, bathing, dressing, toileting, continence, and transferring on a regular basis as these are the six ADLs.

In the past, there have been cases of insured individuals filing a complaint against their insurers because the latter won’t pay out their claims. Upon checking all necessary records, it turned out that the root of the problem is the failure of the insured individuals to meet the qualified benefit triggers.

Blindness, muteness, and deafness are not on the list of accepted ADLs and thus are not considered as benefit triggers. Even the inability to walk is a debatable subject because walking is not considered one of the ADLs. Transferring pertains to moving from a chair to the bed or vice versa, or perhaps, from the living room to the bedroom. It is not simply about walking.

However, if walking is the main task or a regular activity in one’s job it may be considered as one of his ADLs and thus qualifying for the benefit triggers.

Important Terms in the Long Term Care Glossary

Maximum benefit amount is another important LTCI term that you should know as this refers to the total amount of benefits that you will receive from your LTCI policy. Maximum benefit period, on the other hand, is the length of time that you will receive benefits from your policy.

The decision that you make on your maximum benefit amount and maximum benefit period will have a big impact on your policy’s annual premium so it is best to weigh all factors carefully before you come up with a final decision.

Notice that in the paragraph prior to this one another new term popped out and it is none other than premium. This word refers to the money that is paid out to an insurance company for the LTC coverage that it will provide in a nursing home, community-based LTC facility, or at home.

Most individual LTCI policies require annual premiums while some group polices impose a monthly premium.

As you go through the long term care glossary, focus on other important terminologies such as inflation protection and elimination period as these, too, would play vital roles in your potential LTCI policy.

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