Scalable, Comprehensive Product Development, Implementation, and Maintenance Configured to Fit Your Needs
LifeCare designs each long term care insurance product as built-to-order. This approach allows us to scale each client’s implementation appropriate to their needs. By leveraging nearly three decades of experience and a highly flexible infrastructure, LifeCare’s proven product development process remains fluid through each step of implementation:
Product Development
As product design is the foundation of a successful long term care insurance product, our forward-thinking features and benefits allow your product to stand out from the competition. In fact, we have pioneered many of the product features being offered in the marketplace today, including:
- Joint Insured Policy
- Joint Waiver of Premium
- Return of Premium Nonforfeiture
- Limited Pay Policy Design
- Level Premium Inflation
- Step-Rated COLA
- Cash Surrender Rider
- Non-level Premium Structures
- Creative Compensation Programs
- Mix and Match Product Design
- Age Nearest Birthday Pricing
Application Processing
LifeCare’s cutting edge pre-screening technology platform is designed to rapidly screen all incoming applications and instantly highlight deficiencies or exclusions. This innovative resource allows us to streamline application processing and is the key to our accelerated time service standard.
LifeCare’s underwriting philosophy is to carefully consider each applicant’s medical history, physical ability to function independently and, to the extent possible, cognitive ability. LifeCare’s products have historically performed as well or better than the competition. In fact, it is rare for more than a handful of claims to be filed in the first five years after the policy is issued, and claims typically remain at less than 1% in the first 10 years. We attribute these superior claims results to our thorough underwriting methods, which include:
- Reviewing the applicant’s medical records to validate that the information provided by the application and interview is indeed accurate and complete.
- Asking applicants detailed questions on our long term care application and following up with a detailed telephone interview to verify that the application information provided is complete.
- Requesting prescription database information to determine if there are physicians being consulted or drugs being prescribed that have not been disclosed.
- Conducting face-to-face assessments with applicants by a registered nurse, which include cognitive testing. These face-to-face assessments are mandatory beginning at age 66 but may be required at younger ages by our team of experienced underwriters.
LifeCare’s underwriting team also bring years of experience. Our underwriters have an average of over 15 years of experience in LTC underwriting and many have years of prior experience in Life and Disability Income underwriting.
Regulatory Filing and Compliance
As a member of The American Council of Life Insurers (ACLI) and over thirty years of experience in the unpredictable long term care insurance regulatory environment, LifeCare remains at the forefront of both federal and state regulatory issues.
Our thorough knowledge of long term care insurance regulations and procedures helps our clients avoid market conduct issues. While multi-line companies file long term care insurance products only occasionally, we have over three decades of experience. This continuous contact with state insurance departments keeps us up-to-date with the latest state requirements and often helps in shaping state opinion on new benefit designs.
Our wide-ranging services include product filing through ongoing compliance support, including:
- Forms Development and Policy Filing
- Speed-to-Market with Interstate Compact Filing
- Review and Filing of Advertising Material
- Ongoing Product Support and Compliance Updates for Both Policy Language and Advertising Materials
- State Reporting
- Investigation and Resolution of Consumer and Insurance Department Inquiries
- Long Term Care Partnerships
- HIPAA Privacy and Security
Claims Management
LifeCare’s claims philosophy is to provide benefits as quickly as possible. Because most long term care insurance claims involve life-changing events and often loss of independence, our Personal Care Advisors work closely with the insured, family, and caregivers to guarantee the delivery of needed services. When appropriate, we also involve Care Managers trained in the geriatric field. Our experienced staff averages 14 years in health care and five years in long term care to ensure clinical and claims issues are properly handled.
Actuarial Services
Pricing a long term care insurance product to avoid any risk in today’s dynamic environment is a daunting challenge. We provide this specialized knowledge and experience as part of our comprehensive service. Throughout our history, we have priced products both competitively and safely to avoid future rate increases, while maintaining loss ratios lower than industry averages.
Administration and Service
LifeCare’s expansive customer service capabilities provide the full scope of policy management. From the development and distribution of policyholder notices and communications to premium collection and billing, our team of courteous and knowledgeable customer service specialists are trained in all areas of policy administering and servicing.
Our facilities management team also maintains onsite, state-of-the-art printing technology and a full-scale fulfillment division to maintain control over branding, production, and the timely delivery of policyholder and agent communications.
Commission Payment Processing
LifeCare’s commission payment system is scaled to your requirements and manages every step of the process from providing finely detailed reporting to monthly commission audits to calculations and check dispersals. Our team, highly specialized in long term care payment processing, can manage cumbersome client-specific issues such as internal replacements, unclaimed property tracking, IRS levies, 1099 commissions, and debit balances to highlight just a few, relieving your internal commissions team of the time and responsibility required in processing each.
IT Services
LifeCare’s state-of-the-art technology platform is unparalleled in the industry. Our highly-skilled technology team applies advanced, productivity-based solutions to maximize efficiencies and deliver accurate, timely data analytics. Our innovative IT Services are tailored to client needs and typically include:
- Secure, collaborative electronic data exchange – customized to support our client company’s home office systems
- Proprietary administrative system developed exclusively to meet the unique requirements of long term care insurance
- Secure agent website portal allowing interactive production and immediate, customized reports
- Advanced quoting software with personalized Help Desk expertise
- Full-scale call center support with detailed activity analysis and reporting
- HIPAA-EDI compliant processes
Agent and Sales Support
In addition to LifeCare’s extensive agent website portal and our multidisciplinary team of product managers and customer service specialists, we support agents through the demanding sales process by offering:
- An in-depth, comprehensive agent guidebook
- Secured, web-based illustration software for expedited policy quotes
- State-by-state instructions for submitting new business
- 24/7 online access to policy status updates
- Open discussions with our underwriters to estimate the insurability of potential applicants
Agent Resource Center
LifeCare develops a feature-rich, 24-hours/7-days a week, secure, website portal for each client where agents can independently download state-specific forms, confirm application status, access marketing organization reports, and create online quotes so our client’s agents can work continuously and without interruption to production or to retrieving vital information.
Marketing Support
As an option, we assign a highly-skilled team exclusively dedicated to each of our clients. Our knowledgeable product managers offer strategic direction and support to agents, our USA-based customer service specialists’ act as representatives of our client’s operational team, all of which is done seamlessly through the cloak of dedicated toll-free numbers and websites catering to your brand identity.
Reinsurance Solutions
LifeCare’s reinsurance division offers up to 100% coinsurance coverage, removing all financial responsibility from our clients regardless of the level of success of our client’s product performance.
