Online Enrollment New-- Unum eliminates long term care coverage
Posted by
Phil Lamb on Mon, Feb 13, 2012 @ 06:57 AM
Online enrollment allows groups to efficiently process ancillary coverages, such as Long Term Care coverage. As online enrollment and other technologies have made these products more available, the carriers' traditional underwriting approach has been challenged.
A great example of this is Unum's recent decision to eliminate long term care products indefinitely.As with any insurance product, private carriers will only be willing to underwrite risk that they understand. This is necessary to offer premiums that result in a profit to the carrier after paying out claims. (Online enrollment makes this entire process easier by making it more efficient).
The Unum statement read:
After a careful and comprehensive review, we have decided to end sales of new group long term care contracts as of today, Feb. 7. Although we recognize there is a market need for products to help individuals pay for long term care expenses, current economic, pricing and risk factors make it impossible for us to meet our financial and risk management objectives.
The decision to discontinue selling new group long term care policies will not affect current customers or impact the high quality of service we provide to current policyholders and claimants. Additionally, we will continue to accept new enrollees on existing contracts.
Unfortunately, we are not the only insurer to reach this conclusion as many others have now exited the long term care market given the combination of historically low interest rates and the uncertainty of risk and pricing trends.
We believe this decision is in the best interest of all of our policyholders, as it allows us to sharpen our focus on the markets and products that provide the greatest long-term opportunity for our company and are more compatible with our financial and risk management objectives. (Note that InfinityHR has an online enrollment connection with these Unum products).
Additional information is available here. If you have any additional questions, please call our Customer Support area at 800-227-4165, Monday through Friday from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. Eastern time.
Thank you for your understanding, as we recognize that this change may have an impact on you. We appreciate your continued support of Unum.
Online enrollment will continue to be available for the remaining Unum products.
