NY governor wants to expand long-term care options
Long-term care may be expanding in New York. Gov. George E. Pataki proposed a comprehensive bill May 15 to expand long-term care options available to all elderly and chronically ill New Yorkers and to encourage more private financing arrangements, which should increase business for private duty agencies in the state. The bill would expand the state’s managed care program for Medicaid recipients, encourage the development of more continuing care retirement communities, and make the state’s public-private long-term care insurance program permanent.The bill, the Long Term Care Integration and Finance Act of 1997, also would allow accelerated death benefits for long-term care and would streamline requirements for assisted living programs.
The key points in the proposed bill include:
• Twenty-four new managed long-term care pilot programs will be created to serve 25,000 chronically ill and elderly Medicaid recipients. The state now has four such programs.
• A program would be created to study continuing care retirement communities that could be developed and the private financing that could be used. According to Pataki, current law only permits the more costly "life care" community model, with lifetime nursing home benefits.
• A permanent statute of the Partnership for Long-Term Care demonstration program would be authorized. The program allows private insurance to cover the cost of long-term care or nursing home care for the first three years. After that, Medicaid covers the patient’s costs without requiring the individual or spouse to liquidate assets
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