February 2007
Provider Types Affected
Physicians and providers and their staff who provide services to Medicare beneficiaries
Provider Action Needed
This special edition article is for informational purposes and may assist providers when counseling their patients regarding long-term care. The article announces that the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) has developed a consumer website to help beneficiaries carefully prepare a safe and secure strategy for their future healthcare needs. Resources on the new website include a Long-Term Care Planning Kit and detailed information on what long term care needs are; step-by-step planning; and financial preparation. The free Long-Term Planning Kit and resources to start the planning process can be found at http://www.longtermcare.gov. The planning kit may also be ordered by phone by calling 1-866-PLAN-LTC (1-866-752-6582). TTY users should call 800-427-5605.
Background
This special edition article is being provided by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) to inform you that the National Clearinghouse for Long-Term Care Information is a new user-friendly consumer website that provides in-depth objective information on understanding, planning, and paying for long-term care. This important website is a collaborative effort between the Administration on Aging (AoA), the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS), and the Office of the Assistant Secretary for Planning and Evaluation (ASPE), and it was developed as part of the Deficit Reduction Act (DRA) of 2005 (Section 6021 (d)) which allocated funds to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) to help Americans take an active role in planning for their future.
Located at http://www.longtermcare.gov, the Clearinghouse website features information and tools to help people better understand the risks for and the costs of long-term care, and it is part of ongoing efforts to increase public awareness about the importance of advance planning for future long-term care needs. Given that one of the biggest barriers to planning is misinformation about long-term care, the Clearinghouse website is designed to provide people with the trusted information and resources they need to take an active role in planning for possible future health care needs.
With an emphasis on the importance of future planning, the website provides a number of resources and interactive tools to help people prepare for their future healthcare needs including:
The website also includes the Long-Term Care Planning Kit, initially developed for the “Own Your Future” Campaign. Information regarding this campaign is in MLN Matters article SE0671, located at http://www.cms.hhs.gov/MLNMattersArticles/downloads/SE0671.pdf on the CMS site.
A survey showed that consumers who received the Long-Term Care Planning Kit were twice as likely to take some type of planning action, including evaluating their existing coverage, talking to a financial planner, buying long-term care insurance, or considering a reverse mortgage, as those who did not receive the Planning Kit. The Planning Kit can be ordered or downloaded on the Clearinghouse website at http://www.longtermcare.gov, as well as calling 1-866-PLAN-LTC. It can also be ordered or downloaded at http://www.aoa.gov/ownyourfuture.
Additional Information
For more information about the “Own Your Future” campaign and the National Clearinghouse for Long-Term Care Information, please visit http://www.longtermcare.gov.
MLN Matters Special Edition SE0680