Experienced LTC Buyers Focus On Facility Ben.

By Jonathan C. Roth

For some time the focus in ~marketing long-term care insurance has been on asset protection and financial preservation.

But that may be changing. Recent conversations with LTC producers have revealed that personal experience, emotional concerns and the strong desire to ensure high quality care are becoming the primary focus areas in the sale of LTC insurance.

Indications of this shift in focus came from an informal telephone survey that we at Fortis Long~ Term Care recently conducted with some of the nation's top LTC producers.

Producers participating in the survey were asked what differences they were seeing in consumer attitudes toward the purchase of LTC insurance.

They were~ asked to evaluate those attitudes based on the consumer~'s personal experience with long-term care and their knowledge (or lack of knowledge) regarding the long-term care delivery system.

What we found: Prospective clients who identified themselves as having had "experience" with long-term care (either as a caregiver, or through first-hand experience with a caregiver) have a viewpoint that is signific~antly different from those who do not have long-term care experience.

As one producer put it, "those who have experienced taking care of a parent or other family member know the difficulties of maintaining someone at home."

Furthermore, we found that this fact, of having had prior experience, affects these individuals in two ways:

--First, as one producer noted, "this (type of) client is more likely to focus on facility care coverage, including nursing home, assisted living and other facility options."

--Second, these individuals tend to plan carefully for their own care needs, making them much more receptive to talking about LTC insurance.

In addition, most LTC specialists agreed that experienced prospective clients are much more realistic about what the government will and will not cover.

The "~inexperienced" purchaser, on the other hand, can approach the purchase from a wide range of assumptions and situations. For example, these prospective clients may postpone the purchase for a year or so and then find that it's too late to qualify for coverage, while others may delay looking for a policy until after a long-term care need has arisen.

Even when those with no prior experience look at purchasing a policy in a timely manner, their estimations of what they will need may also be ~unrealistic. These are the clients most lik~ely to insist on home care coverage over facility coverage.

"In those cases," reported an LTC specialist, "I let them tell me what they want, and then I point out that what they want is protection for the worst case scenario, which is the possibility of needing round-the-clock care, which home care will not provide."

Echoing that advice, another top producer described her approach. "I ask questions designed to get them thinking," she said. "Questions such as: Do you have someone available to coordinate and oversee care in your home? Because it won't be possible for you to be both the person receiving care and the person who is monitoring the delivery of that care~."

To help prospective clients feel more comfortable with discussing facility coverage, all of the surveyed producers noted that they highlight how facility coverage available today also covers several options in addition to the traditional nursing home setting.

They find that this type of approach makes the idea of care in a facility far less threatening and much more palatable to consumers.

The surveyed producers indicated that inexperienced purchasers may also need guidance in the arena of public payment via Medicare and/or Medicaid.

"It's interesting to realize that most seniors ha~v~e little trouble with the idea of Medicare covering hospital and doctor bills," observed one producer.

"What they do not want is government involvement when it comes to personal care decisions that impact the quality of care in the late stage~ of their lives~."

In summary, those producers who participated in the survey uniformly endorsed an emphasis on:

--Educating the client about probability of need;

--Focusing~ on the client'~s individual situation (presence of a support network of local family caregivers, for example); and

--Presenting policy features from several different angles to address client concerns and individual situations.

The successful long-term care insurance producer is the one who guides the consumer toward coverage that protects assets as well as the emotional well-being of the client and his/her family when care is necessary.

Mr. Roth is second vice president-marketing, Fortis Long Term Care/Time Insurance Company, Milwaukee.

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