Selling Short Term Care Insurance

[jvancleve]

After reviewing some interesting and entertaining debate about selling Cancer Insurance, I wanted your thoughts and opinions on Short Term Care insurance. Appears there are only a few carriers that offer this product, and given the qualifications for the Medicare skilled nursing benefit, short term care appears to be a great senior market product. Are you selling Short Term Care? What has been your experience?

 

[Justin Bilyj]

Twilight would be a good person to talk to about this...

 

[TwiLight]

Twilight would be a good person to talk to about this...

Thanks for the shoutout Empty.

Yes, this is right in our wheel house. It has been our main door opener for the past year and has lead to huge cross sell for FE and Fully Underwritten Life sales.

STCi has 2 types of claim payouts
1. Indemnity/Cash plans
2. Reimbursement plans

There is only one carrier that is strong in this market that is rated A- or better (SLAICO) Standard Life and Accident, which is a reimbursement plan.

Another strong player is: (GTL) Guaranteed Trust Life, which is B+ Rated and is an Indemnity/Cash plan.

The biggest markets in the USA are excluded from this market (for B+ or higher carriers) CA, FL, NY, TX by most, if not all the major players in this market.

Midwest States are where the carriers want the business. The Kemper HHC plan is another strong player that includes TX and is the only game in town there for this type of product.

Feel free to contact me to learn more.

 

[CALTCAgent]

The biggest markets in the USA are excluded from this market (for B+ or higher carriers) CA, FL, NY, TX by most, if not all the major players in this market.

Anybody know the reason they are not in these states?

 

[TwiLight]

Anybody know the reason they are not in these states?

Mostly due to the definition of LTC vs STC.

The STC companies do not want to follow the regulations for sales as an LTC carrier. That is why most of their plans have a limited benefit of 360 days or less. As an agent, in most of these States you do not have to take the LTC CE courses in order to sell STCi.

Kemper had to file the HHC plan as an LTC plan just to get into TX.

 

[CALTCAgent]

The STC companies do not want to follow the regulations for sales as an LTC carrier.

I was told once that another issue was something with reserving requirements. That it wasn't profitable when they had the same requirements as LTC.

Not sure if that is true or not.

 

[jvancleve]

Thanks Twilight, I appreciate your response. Bankers Fidelity Life is rated A- as well. Was thinking Medico, although B-, had an interesting product being more comprehensive, but I see it is understandably more expensive then others. I'll work on getting the details for GTL and add to my spreadsheet (attached FYI).

I remember awhile back, I read some agent stating it was unethically "stacking coverage" to sell a STC policy with a Med Supp. Funny...I spoke with the daughter of a client just last week who was so upset about her Mom being stuck with a sizable nursing home bill because she was not coded as an inpatient and didn't qualify for the Medicare SNF benefit. I had to explain to the daughter as well that if Medicare won't pay, the supplement won't pay either. So, it hardly seems unethical to add STC to a Med Supp in my view. Thoughts?

 

[TwiLight]

Thanks Twilight, I appreciate your response. Bankers Fidelity Life is rated A- as well. Was thinking Medico, although B-, had an interesting product being more comprehensive, but I see it is understandably more expensive then others. I'll work on getting the details for GTL and add to my spreadsheet (attached FYI).

I remember awhile back, I read some agent stating it was unethically "stacking coverage" to sell a STC policy with a Med Supp. Funny...I spoke with the daughter of a client just last week who was so upset about her Mom being stuck with a sizable nursing home bill because she was not coded as an inpatient and didn't qualify for the Medicare SNF benefit. I had to explain to the daughter as well that if Medicare won't pay, the supplement won't pay either. So, it hardly seems unethical to add STC to a Med Supp in my view. Thoughts?

Your list while nice to look at does not offer GTL. I would also add a line item for Indemnity or Reimbursement benefit.

I don't usually like Bankers Fidelity because of the High Cost compared to others on your list. Medico is high because they bundle all coverage, MedAmerica - Well it is tough to underwrite and is the most pricey. Equitable and UCT are ok and about 5%-20% higher priced than GTL and SLAICO-Stnd Rate.

It makes the most sense with the companies that offer an indemnity benefit and not reimbursement when Stacking Coverage.....GTL is the only company that would fit the bill. Indemnity or CASH benefits will pay whether there is payments made by other insurance or Medicare.

As for Cost, The Standard Life & Accident (SLAICO) offers the best pricing in most States along with a Simple Accept/Reject application process. Any YES answers and the app is rejected. This is a big deal when your average sale is a person in their 60's. Add this to a Preferred (20%) discount for some underwriting risks, makes this a tough company to beat.

GTL offers comparable Pricing at SLAICO-Standard rates. All the other companies on your list are far more pricey for the average client.

 

[jvancleve]

Twilight, thank you so much for this information. JVC

 

[Northeast Agent]

Attention Agents Selling Short-Term HHC | New Application

Guarantee Trust Life Insurance Company

Our new Short-Term Home Health Care application will be changing on January 26, 2022. At that time, please ensure you are using the new application when writing new business.

Old applications will be accepted until February 4, 2022.

These changes to the application include:

• • Updated Underwriting questions (revised ADL question and added question regarding Alzheimer's disease, dementia and memory loss)
  • Updated Acknowledgement/Authorization language

This update will be automatic on the Agent Portal. For our e-App, we will notify you when the update becomes available.