Long Term care may help you be prepared for the financial realities and help you maintain control of important decisions such as whether to exhaust your savings or liquidate your assets to pay for a period of long term care.
As you plan for your retirement and for the financial security of your family, you should consider how a period of long-term care could impact everything you have saved. Rice University recognizes how serious this issue can be and has offered employees and their extended families an opportunity to purchase long-term care insurance from Unum. Coverage has been offered since 1996 to help protect against the financial risks associated with long-term care.
Long-term care insurance can help protect your assets if you should have a serious illness, an accident, a stroke, or any health crisis that requires you to need long-term care. And because the cost of care can be as high as $70,000 a year or more, we have enhanced the plan to provide higher facility monthly maximums of $7,000, $8,000, and $9,000. We have also increased the facility monthly maximum that can be purchased on a guarantee issue basis (for newly hired employees) from $4,000 to $6,000.
Optional Long Term Care FAQs
- What is long-term care insurance?
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The benefits you receive from long-term care insurance don’t cover medical expenses, such as doctor’s bills. The plan helps pay for the assistance you need with everyday living. Long term care is the type of care received either at home or in a facility when someone needs assistance with activities of daily living (eating, bathing, continence, dressing, toileting, or transferring), or suffers severe cognitive impairment, due to an accident, an illness or advancing age.
- Who may need long-term care coverage?
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The need for long term care is not limited to the elderly. Accidents and unexpected illnesses can happen at any time, to anyone.
These are important questions to consider if you need long term care such as:
- Who would provide it?
- Where would you receive care?
- How would you pay for it?
You can cover yourself, your spouse, parents, or grandparents under the LTC policy. Depending on when you apply for the coverage and/or the coverage you desire, a completed medical questionnaire may be required for the applicant.
- Who pays for care?
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Many people believe that health insurance or a government program will pay for long-term care. Health insurance won’t cover these costs, and government programs like Medicare and Medicaid fall short as well.
- Who are the caregivers?
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Today there are many adults in the workplace who care for both aging parents and children. Whether you’re the person receiving care or providing it, a long-term care situation can take its toll emotionally, physically, and financially. Balancing work and raising a family with caregiving responsibilities is a challenge. Caregivers may face cutting back hours at work or hours with the family, both of which can be stressful.
As you plan for your retirement and for the financial security of your family, you should consider how a period of long-term care could impact everything you have saved. Rice recognizes how serious this issue can be and has offered employees and their extended families an opportunity to purchase long-term care insurance from Unum since 1996 to help protect against the financial risks associated with long-term care.
- How do I enroll?
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Rice is committed to providing benefits that can help provide security for your future and the futures of those you love. As a newly hired employee, you will be able to enroll up to the guarantee issue levels without answering any health questions. Your extended family members will also have the opportunity to purchase long-term care insurance at a group rate. However, their coverage will continue to be issued on a medically underwritten basis. Employees’ spouses, parents and grandparents, and their spouses’ parents and grandparents are all eligible to purchase coverage.
If you elect Long Term Care, your completed Benefit Election Form must be returned to the Rice Human Resources Benefits Office at 6100 Main St. MS-92, Houston, TX 77005, within 30 days of your benefits-eligible date for any guarantee issue amount to take effect. The Benefits Office will forward your application, including the Evidence of Insurability (EOI) portion, to Unum if you select a plan that requires EOI. Coverage will take effect once approval of the completed EOI application from Unum is received for any coverage over the guarantee issue amounts.
Please visit http://unuminfo.com/WMRU to view enrollment materials and calculate your monthly premium.
- Policyholder Name: Rice University
- Group Policy No. or ID: 022162
- Group Division Number: 001