>RICHMOND, Va. — Adult day care and assisted living costs both grew at a 12 percent clip this year compared to 2009, but other forms of long-term care showed more restraint, according to an annual survey from Genworth Financial.
The median daily rate for nursing care in both private and semiprivate rooms increased by more than 5 percent. The cost of services that let patients stay in their homes rose 3 percent or less, the Richmond, Va., long-term care insurance provider said.
The median cost of a private nursing home _ the most expensive long-term care _ rose to $206 per day this year, compared with $203 in 2009.
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> URBANDALE, Iowa–(BUSINESS WIRE)– Marsh U.S. Consumer, the leading broker and administrator of affinity insurance and membership product programs, has introduced Marsh HSA Services to provide best-in-class health savings account (HSA) solutions for employers and to enable financial institutions to capitalize on the rapidly growing HSA/high-deductible health plan market.
Marsh HSA Services assists financial institutions seeking to launch HSA services or improve existing offerings. Through Marsh HSA Services, Marsh U.S.
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When it comes to long-term-care insurance, families generally fall into two categories:
- They’re either afraid to let their elders go without it, or
- They’re afraid to spend their savings on steep premiums.
Changes in federal law that took effect Jan. 1 could make it cheaper for both groups to hedge their bets.
Long-term care insurance typically covers home-care, assisted-living or nursing-home care, which protects you and your heirs in the case of a long-term chronic illness. But as with most decisions involving insurance, there are drawbacks to consider. The
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>A new report from the U.S. Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services estimated that new health reform laws will cut Medicare Advantage usage in half, add a combined total of about 14.5 million people to private health plans and increase U.S. health spending by hundreds of billions.
The agency, responsible for the bulk of U.S. government health programs, detailed new estimates for how the reforms would impact different categories of health insurance. By 2019, the report said, employer insurance plans would decrease by about 1.4 million, but individual insurance would spike by 15.9 million, fed by activity in the state-based insurance exchanges. Full Article…
> The following information was released by the Ohio Department of Insurance:
If someone offers to give you money to take out a life insurance policy on yourself for the purpose of selling it to an investor, they are probably involved in a stranger-originated life insurance (STOLI) scam, which is illegal in Ohio. Ohio Department of Insurance officials recently stopped such a scam from taking place.
On March 16, 2010, Ohio Department of Insurance Director Mary Jo Hudson revoked the insurance license of Alex Kozonashvili of California for alleged violations of Ohio insurance law, including misrepresentation and untrustworthiness.
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>This article was written by a staff member of MainStreet.com.
By Althea Chang, MainStreet
WASHINGTON (TheStreet) — Health care reform flooded news outlets early this year, but small businesses were left to sift through mountains of information to find out how new policies would affect them.
Here’s a rundown on how new health care policies will change small-business benefits now and during the coming years.
Immediate benefits: As of the beginning of this year, small businesses offering health insurance and covering 50% of premiums can get tax credits to cover up to 35% of insurance costs. Full Article…
> By Michelle Dynes
mdynes@wyomingnews.com
CHEYENNE – Earlier this year, Wyoming lawmakers approved legislation to change the way patients buy health coverage.
The proposal takes steps toward authorizing the sale of health insurance policies across state lines. But it remains unclear how much outside support Wyoming needs to make the idea work.
The legislation allows the state’s insurance commissioner to explore the concept through a multi-state consortium. Participating states would look for ways to eliminate duplicate regulations and decrease the administrative costs of health care.
U.S. Sen.
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> At a time when both parties are competing to crack down the hardest on Wall Street banks, it might come as a surprise to know that the Treasury has been making a tidy profit on most of the government’s Wall Street rescue operations.
What few in Congress are disclosing is that the government’s non-bank rescues have become the biggest drain on taxpayers, including the burgeoning bailouts of mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, insurance giant American International Group, and Detroit’s General Motors and Chrysler.
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