In order to use your long term care insurance, a licensed healthcare practitioner will need to qualify that the insured needs help or substantial assistance with at least 2 out of the 6 daily living activities listed below for a period of 90 days or more.
Daily Living Activities:
- Bathing
- Dressing
- Eating
- Toileting
- Continence
- Transferring (for example: moving from a bed to a chair)
Another way to qualify to use your long term care insurance is for those patients with a cognitive impairment. These patients may be able to perform the above daily living tasks but must be reminded often either how to do each task or when each task should be performed. Patients with Alzheimer’s disease or dementia would fit into such a category. For example, these patients may be physically able to dress themselves, but are unable to remember when they should do this task.
Once your benefits begin, you will have access to the help you need as determined by your healthcare practitioner. Some examples of this would be in home care for daily living activities, supervised care in an assisted living facility or adult day care, among many others. The purpose of long term care insurance is to allow you access to the services you need in the setting that is right for you.
