Home Health Agency
A home health agency provides in-home care services to those in need.
The Complete Glossary on Long-Term Care
Explore clear, easy-to-understand definitions of the terms and concepts that shape long-term care planning. Whether you’re researching coverage options, care types, or planning terms, our glossary helps you make sense of the details so you can plan with confidence.
Term of the Day
Compound Inflation
A compound inflation rider increases Long-Term Care Insurance benefits by a set percentage each year. Because this percentage is compounded, the benefits increase based on the new total. This can help offset increasing care costs.
Categories
Topics
Care Types
Medicare Supplement/Medigap
Medigap or Medicare Supplement are private insurance policies which will pay for medical services that are approved but not paid by Medicare.
Rate Increase
Rate increases on existing Long-Term Care Insurance policies may be sought by an insurance company only if they prove a substantial need based on actuarial reasons and impacting a "class" of individuals.
Claims Offset
In a Long-Term Care Insurance policy, this is a common contractual language that provides the insurance company to apply inflationary benefit increases to the remaining benefit pool of money within the policy instead of using the original amount.
Outpatient Care (Outpatient Facility)
Outpatient care involves skilled care that does not require the patient to remain overnight.
Alternate Care Benefit
An alternative care benefit is a Long-Term Care Insurance provision that provides benefits not explicitly outlined within the original policy.
Lapse Protection
Policyholder's on some Long-Term Care Insurance policies can pay past-due premiums and reinstate their policies in a specified period of time after they have lapsed the policy. If the failure to pay was the result of cognitive or functional impairment additional protections are provided.
Hybrid Long-Term Care Insurance Policy
If the long-term care benefit is not used or is only partially used, the unused death benefit is paid out to policyholder’s heirs like any other life insurance policy or annuity would do.
Inflation Protection
Usually, the policyholder can choose between Simple and Compound increases. Simple increases add the same dollar amount to the monthly or daily benefit each year.
Daily Benefit
The daily benefit for an LTC Insurance policy is the maximum amount of benefits the policy will pay for long-term care services on any given day of an active claim.
Home Health Aide
Home health aides help individuals with their long-term care and personal care needs. These professionals are also known as personal care aides.
Chronically Ill Individual
Under the law, a “chronically ill individual” is any person who has been certified by a licensed health care practitioner as meeting one of three tests.