TOPIC: Long Term Care

The cost of long-term care in any setting - from the home to skilled nursing facilities - can be very expensive. That's why long term care insurance is becoming more popular. But is it right for you and you family? At what point in your life should you buy it, how will it protect your assets and insure quality care, and what exactly are you buying? Our panel of experts will answer your questions on this special one hour call-in edition of Health Link.

GUESTS:

Kevin J. Johnson, LTCP
Kevin Johnson is President of New York Long-Term Care Brokers, Ltd. Kevin has been in the Insurance and Financial Services business since 1974 with a focus on Long-Term Care insurance starting in 1988. He was co-founder of NYLTCB in 1991. Kevin has been a featured speaker at many LTC insurance industry meetings and conferences and he has served on many LTC Advisory boards of major insurance companies. Kevin has published many LTC articles for financial and insurance industry magazines. Kevin also serves on the advisory board for the American Association for LTC insurance as well as the Double H Hole-in-the-Woods Ranch, a retreat ranch which provides recreational and emotional support for children with critical illnesses. Kevin has been president and CEO of New York Long Term Care Brokers since its founding in 1991.

New York Long-Term Care Brokers, Ltd. is an independent, nationally-recognized, brokerage firm that specializes exclusively in Long-Term Care, Life & Disability Insurance, consulting and sales. Their offices are located at 11 Halfmoon Executive Park Clifton Park, NY.

Louis W. Pierro, Esq.
Louis Pierro is Founder and Principal of Pierro & Associates, LLC. Louis concentrates his practice in the areas of Estate Planning, Estate and Trust Administration, Business Succession Planning and Elder Law. Louis Pierro is Chair of the Estate Planning Committee and past chair (1996-1999) of the Committee on Taxation of the Trusts and Estates Law Section of the New York State Bar Association; immediate past Chair of its Elder Law Section, and a member of the Executive Committee of both sections.

Louis is a Director of the Estate Planning Council of Eastern New York, Inc., the Alzheimer's Association of Northeast New York and Senior Services of Albany; a member of the Albany County Bar Association (Chair, Elder Law Committee 1993-1998), the National Academy of Elder Law Attorneys and the American Bar Association, Probate and Trust Section. He also serves on the Advisory Board to the Albany Office of the Samuel Sadin Institute on Law of the Brookdale Center on Aging of Hunter College, and as a member of the NYS Guardianship Advisory Board.

Louis served as an adjunct professor at Siena College, where he lectured on Estate Planning from 1987-1995. A graduate of Lehigh University and Albany Law School, Mr. Pierro was admitted to the bar in January 1984, and is licensed to practice in all New York State Courts, the US Supreme Court and the Second Circuit Court of Appeals. He is a frequent author and lecturer on the topics of Estate Planning, Estate and Gift Taxation and Elder Law.

Pierro & Associates, LLC has offices in Albany, New York City and Utica.

Richard Iannello
Since July 2000, Rick Iannello has served as executive director of Albany Guardian Society, an operating foundation that undertakes projects to improve the quality of life for seniors. At Albany Guardian Society, he has collaborated with the Foundation for Long Term Care to develop statewide nursing assistant training programs. He has also worked with the Center for Health Workforce Studies to determine the feasibility of creating a long term care administrators institute. Rick co-produced, with WMHT Educational Telecommunications, a 13-part television series titled "IT'S AN AGE THING!" which aired on public television stations across the country. In 2003, he began working with The Community Foundation for the Capital Region to institute a neighborhood health advocate program in the West Hill community of Albany.

In 1987 Rick was appointed executive director at Eddy Cohoes Rehabilitation Center and went on to serve as director of all Eddy health care sites. With the creation of Northeast Health, Rick spent his final two years as executive director of LTC Eddy, Inc., the holding corporation that oversaw all Eddy activities. After leaving the Eddy at the end of 1996, Rick assisted numerous chronic care providers with strategic planning engagements and also facilitated planning sessions to help organizations refocus their services in response to the changing needs of the senior populations they serve. He also completed a joint engagement for the New York Association of Homes and Services for the Aging and the American Association of Homes and Services for the Aging, studying the development of health care alliances and how they have impacted relationships within the provider community and with associations.

Rick is a 1971 graduate of SUNY Brockport with a major in Economics and a minor in Art. He became a licensed nursing home administrator in 1975 and in 1982 he received a Masters Degree in Public Administration with an emphasis in health care. His experience includes positions such as administrator at Genesee County Nursing Home; Vice President, Programs and Administration at St Anne's Home, a 591 bed nursing facility campus in Rochester, New York; and health care consultant for Ernst & Whinney (now Ernst & Young).

Merline Smith
Merline Smith, Principal Insurance Examiner at The New York State Insurance Department, has since 1993 supervised the unit that resolves the thousands of complaints consumers file annually against the state's health insurers and health maintenance organizations (HMOs).

Merline joined the Insurance Department in 1980 and is now one of its foremost experts on health insurance and long-term care matters. In addition to holding a senior position with this agency, Ms. Smith is the chairperson of the Healthcare Roundtable, which is comprised of healthcare providers, HMOs and insurers who meet regularly to coordinate their efforts. Moreover, she is the Insurance Department's primary consumer services contact with the New York State Partnership for Long-Term Care (NYSPLTC), a unique and innovative New York State Department of Health program that combines private long-term care insurance and Medicaid to help New Yorkers prepare for the possibility of financing nursing home or home care.

Merline also works closely with the Health Insurance Information Counseling and Assistance Program (HIICAP), a federally-funded entity that is administered through the New York State Office for the Aging.

A native of Jamaica, West Indies, Merline graduated with a bachelor of science degree from the State University of New York (SUNY) at Old Westbury. She and her husband, Anel, reside in Guilderland, New York with their children, Taryne and Andrew.