Long Term Care Partnership Program
The mission of the Louisiana Long-Term Care Partnership Program is to encourage individuals to plan for the high costs of long-term care. Long-term care is a range of services and supports needed over a long period of time. These services can be provided at home, in residential facilities, in nursing homes or in other community settings.
Many individuals mistakenly believe that Medicare will cover long-term care costs. The reality is that Medicare pays for very little long-term care and that middle income individuals are at especially high risk of impoverishment because of the asset and income limitations attached to public sources of payment.
The Partnership Program especially encourages consideration of long-term care insurance as a way to meet the costs of long-term care. Long-term care insurance addresses two major concerns: control over health care decisions and protection of assets. Partnership policies are a special kind of long-term care insurance policy that offers dollar for dollar asset protection if individuals ever need to apply for Medicaid-covered long-term care services.
The Partnership Program operates under the direction of the Department of Health in consultation with the Department of Insurance. Federal enabling legislation pertaining to the Partnership Program is set forth in the Deficit Reduction Act of 2005, P.L. 109-171.