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Michigan's Long Term Care Workgroup Proposes System Changes

Wed, 04/19/2000 - 12:00am — Karen Stevenson
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Michigan's Long Term Care Workgroup published preliminary results of their study into the Michigan long term care system, and are continuing to meet to refine the final report. They made a number of recommendations for changes. Among other things, they recommend development of a "single point of entry" program that will make it easier for beneficiaries to access services provided by different state agencies. They also suggest that the tobacco settlement money be used partly to education Michigan residents about long term care issues to encourage them to take personal responsibility for planning for their long term care needs.

One innovative idea they propose is to require long term care insurance policies to permit the use of benefits as a pool of money, rather than as a daily benefit for a fixed number of years. Instead of a $100 per day three-year maximum benefit policy, such policies would provide a $109,500 pool of money which could be spent to allow the benefits to last more than three years, with no penalty for seeking alternative care, such as assisted living, to make the benefits last longer.

They also recommended that the state consider making insurance premiums and caregiver expenses tax-deductible, and that they extend the "look-back" periods which make people who have divested themselves of assets ineligible for Medicaid from 3 years to 10 years.

Michigan's Long Term Care Workgroup published preliminary results of their study into the Michigan long term care system, and are continuing to meet to refine the final report. They made a number of recommendations for changes. Among other things, they recommend development of a "single point of entry" program that will make it easier for beneficiaries to access services provided by different state agencies. They also suggest that the tobacco settlement money be used partly to education Michigan residents about long term care issues to encourage them to take personal responsibility for planning for their long term care needs.

One innovative idea they propose is to require long term care insurance policies to permit the use of benefits as a pool of money, rather than as a daily benefit for a fixed number of years. Instead of a $100 per day three-year maximum benefit policy, such policies would provide a $109,500 pool of money which could be spent to allow the benefits to last more than three years, with no penalty for seeking alternative care, such as assisted living, to make the benefits last longer.

They also recommended that the state consider making insurance premiums and caregiver expenses tax-deductible, and that they extend the "look-back" periods which make people who have divested themselves of assets ineligible for Medicaid from 3 years to 10 years.