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SoninPA Asked January 2020

Long term care insurance; can she still collect benefits?

We recently took over my mother's bills and finance. She battled us, but waited way too long to surrender the fight. We have had to put out many fires including "way over-due" bills. We came across evidence of a Long Term Care policy that she started years ago when healthy (she has dementia). I was able to set up a profile and access her status via their website. It says that the policy is inactive and last premium was 11/2017. My question is: Can she still collect benefits if needed? Can we re-activate the policy and start pickup on the premiums? I guess our main concern is that she would lose everything she paid into over the years because of her dementia. Thoughts??

MsMadge Jan 2020
I wish you luck - call and plead your case

most policies allow you to name an additional contact so just in case things slip through the crack someone trusted can be alerted

my mother had a meager 4 year policy and will exhaust the benefits next month which paid out only 60% as memory care is not skilled nursing

it was a huge ordeal to initially get her claim approved and I can only imagine some folks would give up and not collect anything

Tothill Jan 2020
Generally with insurance you have up to one year to make up missed premiums and may also have to pay a penalty. I think you will be out of luck as it has been more than 2 years. You can call the company to ask.

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Riverdale Jan 2020
While this may be a longshot if you are possibly able to contact the insurance agent who sold the policy that could help you to understand it. I agree that if it lapsed it may be very hard to reactivate it but you should contact the company as well as possibly trying to find out who sold the policy. In my mother's case the daughter of the man who had his own insurance company had taken it over after his death.

Frankly LTC companies can be brutal. One has to jump through heaps to abide by their rules which change to benefit them in terms of paying out. My mothers will expire in June and it was one of the wisest decisions she made. She was divorced for many years. The type of policy she bought is no longer sold by them. However if it were not for my husband and I advocating on her behalf it is likely much may not have been reimbursed. I am sorry you are dealing with this. I fully understand the headache involved.

AlvaDeer Jan 2020
You will need to check with the company if it is active. I doubt it. And no, they are not responsible for keeping up a policy because a person is suffering from dementia. They are responsible to send out bills. If not paid, the insurance will likely lapse. Comfort yourself with knowing that in many cases the fine print is so awful you get very little for the investment anyway. For instance, they may only cover memory care if there is 24/7 RN on duty (something that is a rare thing indeed) and other stipulations. Good luck.

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