Long Term Care Insurance - Monthly Feature

Monthly Long Term Care Insurance Update from our expert contributor: Recommendations with HIPPA Beata Everett, Long Term Care Insurance Specialist

Over the years HIPAA has been providing an increasing amount of guidelines for medical providers to use to help protect patients and their private information. Insurance companies and insurance agents are all required to follow HIPAA rules, one of which is not allowing access to insurance policy information to anyone except for the client.

Generally, the insurance companies have a Friends and Family form that allows clients to complete and sign to provide permission for the insurance company to speak to whomever they list on the form. In our practice, we find that this is a critical step to take at the time of claim.

It is rare that a client is able to complete the claim process on his/her own so having support from loved ones is essential. We also recommend signing a HIPAA forms at doctor’s offices giving the doctor permission to speak to loved ones, or if a home care company is caring for the client to speak to them as well. Once someone has memory loss they could easily forget to share pertinent information with a provider so doing this in advance is important and will prove very helpful.

A note to other home care agencies that accept long-term care insurance for their services. It is essential that at the beginning of the case, to have the client complete the HIPPA form in order to allow the agency to discuss long term care insurance issues, including any delays in payments/reimbursement to the client. This enables the home care company to serve as the client’s advocate and ease the burden on the client and family. Until next month, Beata Everett. ■

Long-Term Planning Associates, LLC
Tel: (203) 331-1818 Ext. 2
Fax: (866) 297-7758
Email: BEverett@LTPlan.com
Web: www.LTPLAN.com