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Knowing the average stay at a nursing home and at an assisted living facility will help you decide the coverage and the benefit period of your LTCI. This factor will also help you figure out ways to minimize your LTCI Premiums. 28 months is the average stay for nursing-home residents and 27 months for assisted-living residents.

After their stay in a nursing home or an assisted living facility keep in mind that many receive some kind of long term care before or after it. 40% of residents in short-stay nursing facility or an acute-care hospital move to assisted living facilities. 34% of the residents moving to a nursing home come after a stay in an assisted living facility.

Many received care in their own homes first before moving to nursing homes. According to studies, on an average a 65 year old today will need some kind of long term care services for at least three years. A LTCI policy with three year coverage is most popular because of the statistics provided above.

When there is a family history of Alzheimer’s disease and other such long-lasting conditions a longer benefit period is suggested. 20% of today’s 65 year olds need long term care for more than 5 years. Longer benefit periods result in higher premiums. Generally benefits for a lifetime cost more than twice the premiums of a three year benefit period.

Most popular is the policy with benefits that are ‘short and fat’ rather than ‘tall and thin’. A $200 maximum daily benefit for three years is an example of a ‘short and fat policy’ where you are actually buying a policy of $219,000 worth of long term care. As your daily maximum is $200, you can not use more than $200 per day. When you use less than your daily maximum amount (i.e. $200) you actually extend your coverage for more than three years.

A ‘tall and thin’ policy maybe one in which your daily maximum benefit is $100 for a 6 year benefit. This policy will not pay more than $100 for care. If your daily care cost is $150, then you will be forced to pay $50 out of pocket for every day of long term care.

Look for a policy which has a longer waiting period for nursing home care, but with a zero day waiting period for home care as very often care is first received in the home. Instead of lowering the waiting period for all types of care, which can increase your premiums significantly, consider paying extra for a rider to eliminate the waiting period for home care.

If you are married buying a shared benefit policy where each spouse buys a three year benefit, but each can use from the other’s benefit period if one needs a longer period than the other, is a good idea to reduce premiums. For example, if one needs 5 years of coverage the spouse can use the remaining one year.

Want to find out more about long term care insurance, then visit Maria Smith’s site on how to choose the best long term care insurance policy for your needs.

A combination of nursing home care, home health care, assisted living and adult day care is offered by most Long Term Care Insurance Policies. By offering policies with special features, discounts, riders and expanded benefits insurance companies distinguish themselves and their products. Because some companies offer benefits that come with a basic policy while others add them at an extra cost through riders long term care differs from company to company.

Though riders come with valuable benefits you must decide which riders are worth the extra cost. Few riders result in increased cost without corresponding increases in benefits. Review the following rider options below before you consider buying LTCI policy.

Spousal Benefit Rider A LTCI policy with a Spousal Benefit Rider may cost more but it comes with the advantage where each spouse can tap into the other’s benefit pool. This allows the policy holders to claim five or six years of benefits.

Home Health Care Rider Some kind of home health care is offered by almost all LTCI policies as part of their basic policy. Still others offer home health care as a rider. Tax qualified long term care insurance policies allow you to use benefits which are not considered taxable income but also cover some home health care. Ask your insurance company if you have home health care coverage if you have a non-tax qualified policy.

Non-forfeiture Benefit Rider This rider allows you to still receive some of your benefits even if you stop paying premiums. The two kinds of non-forfeiture benefit riders are the ‘cash back option’ rider and the ‘shortened benefit period’ rider. In case of your death or you stopped paying premiums the ‘return of premium’ rider or ‘refund of premium’ rider also known as the cash back option feature guarantees the return of your premium to you or your beneficiary. The ‘shortened benefit period’ rider gives your benefits for a specific amount of time based on how much you paid into the policy.

Return of Premium or Refund of Premium Upon Death Rider Not all companies nor all states offer the return of premium or refund of premium which pays upon death. Some or all of your paid up premiums are distributed to your designated beneficiary or estate Ii the policy benefits are not used by you during your life time with this rider. This rider can be built into the policy at a small price or added on as a rider. The built in return of premium or refund of premium rider allows the policy holder’s beneficiary or estate to receive premiums paid into the policy if the policy holder dies before the age of 65 or 70. A tax deduction in the amount of the premium can be received by a business with the return of premium rider.

Inflation Rider Inflation Rider is the most important one regardless of which long term care insurance policy you buy. The Inflation Rider ensures that your LTCI benefits keep pace with the rising cost of health care.

Want to find out more about long term care insurance, then visit Maria Smith’s site on how to choose the best long term care insurance policy for your needs.