Thursday December 7, 2000
Seattle—
Dear LTC Bullets Subscriber:
What follows after this message is a press release announcing publication of
the Center for Long-Term Care Financing's Year 2000 major project report. (You may also view, print and pass along a
formatted version of the press release available online at www.centerltc.org/bullets/current/tri_press.htm.) We hope you find "The LTC
Triathlon" to be a helpful source for understanding and resolving the
crisis in long-term care service delivery and financing. We welcome your comments and suggestions on
the report and on what steps we should take next to follow up on the report's
findings.
The Center respectfully requests the assistance of our readership in the
following ways:
MEDIA: We would greatly appreciate any
and all published reviews of The LTC Triathlon. Center President Stephen Moses
will be available for interviews regarding the report or other subjects at
425-467-6840 or via email at smoses@centerltc.org. Reviews that direct readers to the Center
for LTC Financing's web site at www.centerltc.org
and that invite readers to subscribe directly to our free LTC Bullets online
newsletter (by emailing info@centerltc.org)
will be
especially beneficial.
PROVIDERS: We believe that distribution
of The LTC Triathlon to the long-term care provider profession is
critical. All home health, assisted
living, and nursing home representatives in receipt of this LTC Bullet are
urged to forward it and The LTC Triathlon report to your colleagues. Please encourage them to visit the Center
for LTC Financing's web site at www.centerltc.org
and to subscribe directly to our free LTC Bullets by emailing info@centerltc.org.
INSURERS and other FINANCIAL ADVISERS:
We urge all LTC insurance agents, brokers and carrier representatives to
join with all attorneys, accountants and financial planners in receipt of this
LTC Bullet to forward The LTC Triathlon press release and the report itself to
all your colleagues. Please add an
invitation to them to visit the Center for LTC Financing's web site at www.centerltc.org and to subscribe
directly to our free LTC Bullets by emailing info@centerltc.org.
LTC FINANCIERS: If you're in the business of providing debt or equity capital
for the construction or operation of home health, assisted living, or nursing facilities,
we want to reach more of your colleagues with The LTC Triathlon report and the
Center for LTC Financing's other publications. Please forward this press
release and the report to your colleagues and industry contracts. Encourage them to visit the Center for LTC
Financing's web site at www.centerltc.org
and to subscribe directly to our free LTC Bullets by emailing info@centerltc.org.
Thank you all for attending to these requests.
Happy reading.
***Press Release***
LTC: WHAT'S
WRONG, WHO'S TO BLAME, HOW TO FIX
For Immediate Release
Thursday, December 7, 2000
Contacts:
Stephen Moses, President (425-467-6840, smoses@centerltc.org)
David Rosenfeld, Exec. Dir. (ph: 425-467-6840, david@centerltc.org)
Amy Marohn, Media Relations (425-467-6840, amy@centerltc.org)
Sarah Allen, Admin. Coor. (425-467-6840, sarah@centerltc.org)
Bellevue, WA—
"America's long-term care service delivery and financing system is a
tragic mess. The symptoms include
widespread bankruptcies, collapsed stocks, scant capital, scarce staffing, high
costs, low government reimbursement, little private insurance, declining
quality, expanding litigation, skyrocketing liability premiums, persistent
institutional bias, and a growing generation of overwhelmed family caregivers. Unfortunately, aging demographics signal
that the worst is yet to come. What's
wrong? Who's responsible? What should be done? Those are the questions this study set out
to address."
With that statement, Stephen A. Moses, President of The Center for Long-Term
Care Financing in Bellevue, Washington released a report today entitled The LTC Triathlon: Long-Term Care's Race for Survival. Based on telephone interviews with 119 of the leading private
financiers, providers and insurers of long-term care, The LTC Triathlon study is a penetrating analysis and critique of
long-term care public policy. According to the report, "We tapped into a
gusher of anger and frustration directed primarily at the public programs that
finance most long-term care in the United States: Medicare and Medicaid. . . .
For example: 'Medicaid does not
cover costs' and 'There is no
question the nursing home sector was killed by Medicare cuts.' The government demands 'Ritz-Carlton care for Motel 6 rates' and simultaneously enforces
an 'unprecedented regulatory
Jihad.'" The report also abounds with positive proposals for
corrective action by the same private-sector expert respondents.
Moses stated "Our parents—the Greatest Generation—survived the Depression,
fought WWII, and made a good life for us baby boomers. Yet, we gave them a welfare-financed,
institution-based long-term care system that is falling apart today. Their biggest challenge began on Pearl Harbor
Day, 1941. It is fitting, therefore,
that we boomers dedicate ourselves on Pearl Harbor Day, 2000 to our greatest
challenge—to create a long-term care service delivery and financing system that
works, before we need it, so that responsibility never falls upon our
children. This report is a fresh start
from a different perspective on that challenge."
Read or download this 66-page report in .pdf format at http://www.centerltc.org/pubs/recent.htm.
To purchase a hard copy for $49.95, call 425-467-6840 or email your order
to info@centerltc.org. Media and legislators may request one free
hard copy. The Center for Long-Term
Care Financing's first two white papers—LTC
Choice: A Simple, Cost-Free Solution to the Long-Term Care Financing Puzzle
and The Myth of Unaffordability: How Most
Americans Should, Could and Would Buy Private Long-Term Care Insurance—are
also avail-
able to review and/or purchase at www.centerltc.org.
The Center for Long-Term Care
Financing is a 501(c)(3) charitable non-profit organization dedicated to
ensuring quality long-term care for all Americans. The Center promotes public policy that targets scarce government
resources to the neediest, while encouraging people who are young, healthy, and
affluent enough, to take responsibility for themselves. The Center publishes
LTC Bullets, a free online newsletter featuring news and views on long-term
care financing. Subscribe today at www.centerltc.org.
###
_____________
*** Forward freely; encourage subscribers! ***
The Center for Long-Term Care Financing is a 501(c)(3) charitable non-profit
organization dedicated to ensuring quality long-term care for all
Americans. Ask how you can support the
Center today! Visit our website at http://www.centerltc.org/needhelp.htm
or contact Amy Marohn at amy@centerltc.org
for details.
This e-mail is the latest installment of "LTC Bullets" - the Center's
periodic online news service covering the latest information and trends in
long-term care financing. We welcome
responses to the material presented.