Assured Allies has an idea about how to make long-term care insurance (LTCI) more sustainable for insurers and better for the insured: Keep the insured healthy.
The Boston-based startup recently attracted $18.3 million in capital for its efforts to use a combination of modern data analysis techniques and knowledge about aging to reduce the odds that those with LTCI will suffer from severe dementia, or from other disabilities that interfere with their ability to handle the activities of daily living.
Roee Nahir and Dr. Afik Gal started Assured Allies in 2018, to make commercial use of a homegrown risk scoring system. The system can help users predict what will happen to people as they age.
Assured Allies is now working with LTCG, a company that runs many insurers' LTCI programs, to market the Age Assured elder wellness program to LTCI insureds. Assured Allies will work with LTCG to offer program participants case management services, fall prevention support, caregiver training and other support services.
Assured Allies and LTCG are hoping the Age Assured program will improve participants' quality of life in the short term, reduce the risk of rapid decline, and reduce aging-related costs.
One sign that funders are rooting for Assured Allies: One of the companies contributing to the new round of funding is Wilton Re. Wilton Re is the company that agreed to reinsure a large block of CNO Financial Group LTCI policies in 2018. Wilton Re then hired LTCG to help it manage the policies.
Here are five ideas about long-term care, long-term care insurance and LTC wellness programs that came out of an interview with Gal and with Andy Freedman, Assured Allies' chief product officer.
1. The COVID-19 pandemic shows why LTCI issuers need better data and better data analysis.
Many investors, and people with a general interest in the well-being of older people, want to know how the pandemic and pandemic-related social distancing efforts have affected the LTCI insureds who are still out in the community and LTCI insureds who are using their benefits.
For the most part, "the LTC carriers do not have any of that data," Gal said.
2. The little things count.
An LTCI issuer may not be able to do much about some of the most common reasons that people need LTC services, such as cancer and dementia.
But Gal said issuers may be able to protect insureds against the effects of some of the other causes, such as falls.
Gal cited hearing loss as another cause that could be addressed by a well-designed elder wellness program.
