HHS Not Collecting LTC Partnership Program Data

Insurers and regulators would like to see national data on the Long-Term Care Partnership program, but the federal government is not collecting the data.

Federal law requires insurers participating in the LTC Partnership program to send data to the federal government, but "the federal government has no funding to collect the data and has not done so since 2013," according to teleconference meeting minutes on the website of the National Association of Insurance Commissioners (NAIC).

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The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) is the department in charge of tracking the partnership program.

"Federal funds may soon become available after the federal Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA) is fully implemented," according to the teleconference minutes.

The LTC Partnership system lets states use Medicaid eligibility incentives to encourage residents to buy private long-term care insurance (LTCI). In a state with a partnership program, holders of qualified private LTCI can keep more of their assets if they use up their private LTCI and end up using Medicaid nursing home benefits.

Members of the Long-Term Care Partnership Reporting Subgroup, part of the NAIC's Senior Issues Task Force, talked about the LTC Partnership program reporting gap in March.

Many states have reciprocity arrangements that let incoming residents use LTC Partnership policies from other states to get Partnership rights. Rebecca Vaughan, an Indiana regulator, said states with reciprocity arrangements need program data to manage the reciprocity programs.

Meeting participants said the HHS does not seem to have clear authority to hire an outside entity to collect the LTC Partnership program data, and that insurers have concerns about data confidentiality.

Regulators are looking into the possibility of having the NAIC collect the data for HHS, according to the minutes.