Page 60 - Growing Old Without a Plan for Long Term Care is not for Sissies_Neat

42 Growing Old Without a Plan for Long Term Care is not for Sissies determination however the insurance company may want further confrmation as the need for care continues. Also, keep in mind that once you have satisfed the requirements to start receiving benefts, you will likely still have to wait 30-180 days before the insurance company begins paying your benefts due to the elimination period you chose when you purchased your policy. Most Long Term Care Insurance policies base their claim pay- ments on reimbursement. In other words, you have to incur the cost before the company will pay. This means that you often need to provide a copy of your billing statement from your provider to the insurance company before they begin payment. Also, the provider must meet certain criteria to qualify for reimbursement, generally involving state licensing. An exception to this might be a home health care cash payment beneft offered by some companies or policies that pays for informal home health care from non-licensed individuals. There are generally limits and/or restrictions on a cash or informal caregiver beneft, especially involving care provided by family members. So even if your niece needs a job and you would like her to provide your care, you might not be able to pay her from your insurance policy. Here’s something nice to know. With most policies, when you start receiving benefts, you stop paying premiums. And with some policy riders, you even get to stop paying your spouse’s premiums! Still, I don’t know about you, but I hope to pay premiums for a very long time. Most policies offer additional services at claim time so make sure you check your policy. Here are a couple of examples: