Georgia LTC Ongoing CE Course

This four-hour course applies to producers who need to maintain their certification to transact Long-Term Care insurance. This course will cover key principles and concepts related to long-term care insurance coverage and will discuss a number of important issues surrounding long-term care, including an introduction to the history and concepts related to LTC, what long-term care insurance is and its associated uses, levels of care, eligibility for coverage, settings for care, the Activities of Daily Living, alternatives to LTC, Medicare, Medicaid and Georgia’s Long-Term Care Partnership plan.  

The course continues with a deep look at long-term care policies, including the basics and in-depth material. Elimination periods, general underwriting, benefit periods, tax issues and tax-qualified contracts, agent and insurer responsibilities, replacement concerns, optional benefits and riders are thoroughly explored. Continuing, the course details important sections of the National Association of Insurance Commissioners Long-Term Care Model Act and its requirements, and the course concludes with an in-depth discussions of Georgia Medicaid and Long-Term Care partnerships. 

The course contains numerous illustrations and graphics to assist comprehension, as well as simplifications of difficult laws and rules. 

The course contains numerous illustrations and graphics to assist comprehension, as well as simplifications of difficult laws and rules. 

The course concludes with a final exam that must be successfully passed in order to receive certification for the course. 

Specifically, the course explores: 

• The history of long-term care coverage, the current state of affairs and statistics related to purchasers and coverage, and the premium costs; 
• What long-term care insurance really is, levels of care such as skilled care and unskilled care, home health and community care, and alternative care methods, like assisted living facilities, retirement complexes, adult daycare, group homes, respite care, the PACE program, and more; 
• The Activities of Daily Living (ADLs), cognitive impairment issues, settings for care including potential costs, corresponding facilities including private versus semi-private care, dementia facilities, adult family homes, nursing homes, and regional differences in the mix of care; 
• Who pays for long-term care, traditional Medicare is explored including Part D for prescription drug coverage and how these plans may be related to long-term care coverage; 
• The long-term care policy: the basics of the contract, important terms and definitions associated with coverage, an in-depth dive into the ADLs and Instrumental Activities of Daily Living (the IADLs) and how they may trigger benefits; 
• Tax concerns associated with tax-qualified long-term care (TQLTC) and non-qualified policies, general provisions, nonforfeiture concerns and inflation protection options and issues; 
• The agent’s responsibilities in transacting LTC, suitability concerns and mandates, protections against unintentional lapse of the policy, exclusions found in LTC policies, a deep discussion on replacement concers, and marketing and advertising information; 
• Optional benefits are analyzed, including riders and optional provisions, such as guarantee of insurability, waiver of premium, inflation protections, cost of living adjustments, spousal and survivorship benefit riders, and hybrid, or linked-benefit contracts; 
• Georgia Medicaid and Long-Term Care Partnerships, including: 
  • An introduction to and the concepts and rules of Medicaid in Georgia; 
  • Medicaid eligibility requirements, including citizenship and identity, key statistics and recent developments, the uninsured in Georgia concerns; 
  • Low Income Medicaid (LIM), Aged, Blind and Disabled Medicaid (ABD), PeachCare for Kids, including all associated categories and programs; 
  • Medicaid, eligibility, Long-Term Care Services and Supports, eligibility, and associated programs, including: 
    • New Options, Comprehensive Supports, Independent Care, Elderly and Disabled waiver programs; 
    • Katie Beckett program, PeachCare for Kids, Childrens Intervention and Childrens Intervention School Services Programs; 
    • Georgia Families and Georgia Families 360° programs, Planning for Healthy Babies, Medicaid for Workers with Disabilities; 
    • Entry points for Medicaid coverage, financial criteria for various programs, application and process, mandatory and optional services, benefits for children, seniors, and individuals with disabilities, Medicaid usage and costs, recent trends, access to providers; 
    • Managed care organizations and structure, analysis of the MCO program(s), next steps for Georgia’s MCO, hospice and nursing homes. 
  • Georgia Long-Term Care partnerships, including laws and rules associated with the program, including: 
    • Medicaid estate recovery, home exemption rules and allowances, intent to return to the home, 65 and older exceeding financial limits for Medicaid; 
    • Georgia LTC partnership forms LTCP 200-A and 2—B; 
    • LTC partners including the Georgia Department of Community Health and the Division of Aging Services of the Georgia Department of Human Services; 
    • Notifying DCH about a member’s death, financial criteria for Medicaid services eligibility and all available services, application process, mandatory and optional Medicaid services; 
    • PeachCare for Kids, children’s intervention services, key Medicaid benefits for seniors and individuals with disabilities, how Medicaid benefits are used; 
    • Healthcare utilization rates, recent cost trends, access to Georgia Medicaid providers and access standards; 
    • Managed care organizations (MCO) infrastructure, Georgia Families programs, next steps for Georgia’s MCO program; 
    • Hospice care and Medicaid, nursing homes; 
    • Conclusion of course and summary.