Long overdue scrutiny of the Long Term Care providers

According to the New York Times, the House Committee on Energy and Commerce is conducting an investigation on how long term care insurance companies handle policyholder claims – and they have begun by asking two of the largest sellers of LTC insurance to produce documents for their investigation.

According to what the committee has uncovered in court documents,

Conseco, Penn Treaty [the two largest LTC insurance sellers] and other insurers developed policies that rejected policyholders’ claims because they had failed to submit unimportant paperwork, filled out the wrong forms after receiving them from the insurance companies or because facilities had been deemed inappropriate even though they were licensed by state regulators. In California alone, nearly one in every four long-term care claims was denied in 2005.

We all need long term care insurance. And when we pay our monthly LTC insurance premiums, we expect our claims to be approved. Imagine, nearly 25% of all LTC claims in California were denied in 2005. 25%! That's ridiculous

It’s about time the federal government has begun to step in – in representation of its people and not in representation of the corporations.