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Life Health > Long-Term Care Planning

Continental General Agrees to Acquire Elevance LTCI Policies

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Continental General Insurance Company and its affiliates have agreed to acquire a block of long-term care insurance policies from Elevance Health.

The Austin, Texas-based company recently announced that it would sell LTCI policy administration services to other insurers.

Michael Gorzynski, Continental General’s chairman, said the Elevance deal will help Continental General become the “acquisition partner and administrator of choice for the long-term care industry.”

What It Means

Insurers and distributors seem to be showing a little more interest in the long-term care insurance and long-term care planning markets, possibly because the aging of the baby boomers has brought more entrepreneurs and company executives into personal, direct contact with people who need care.

The Continental General-Elevance Deal

The Continental General announcement about the Elevance block acquisition came out just days after StanCorp Financial Group said it was acquiring the Elevance group life and group disability business.

The companies have not described the size of the block, and they have not said whether Continental General is paying Elevance or whether Elevance is paying Continental General, or how much cash, if any, is changing hands.

In Other LTCI News …

• Securian Financial said it has cut SecureCare III life-LTC hybrid policy rates by 25% in Connecticut. Earlier this year, the company announced 25% rate cuts in Florida and in the 48  states that use the Interstate Insurance Product Regulation Commission’s Interstate Compact to handle rate filings.

• AARP has published data on the number of family caregivers in each state, the number of hours of care those caregivers provide, and the estimated hourly value of the care the caregivers provide.

In 2021, the estimated value per hour ranged from $11.84 in Louisiana, up to $21.88 in Washington state, with a national average of $16.59. The total value of family caregiving was about $600 billion, or about 2.6% of the United States’ $23 trillion in gross domestic product. The estimated output of U.S. family caregivers was comparable to the 2021 GDP of Belgium.

The National Advisory Committee on Rural Health and Human Services recently told Xavier Becerra, the secretary of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, that expanding Programs of All-Inclusive Care for the Elderly (PACE) could be a good way to provide long-term care services for people who live in rural areas.

PACE plans give private organizations a chance to provide soup-to-nuts, home-based care for people who need the kind of care that has traditionally been provided in nursing homes.

The HHS advisory committee recommended that HHS organize a PACE pilot aimed at rural people who qualify for Medicare but not for Medicaid to see how well PACE plans work in rural areas and how much startup capital the plans need.

President Joe Biden proclaimed April to be Care Workers Recognition Month. The proclamation recognizes workers who help older people and people with disabilities as well as workers who care for children.

(Image: Adobe Stock)


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