Beginning Jan. 1, 2009, all insurance agents that sell long-term care insurance policies in Wisconsin must complete at least eight hours of state-approved training to sell those policies in the state.
Training will include general conditions of long-term care policies, how the policies are funded and how they can be used to pay for long-term care, said Guenther Ruch, administrator of the regulation and enforcement division at the Wisconsin Office of the Commissioner of Insurance (OCI).
“Two hours of that must include specific training that is unique to Wisconsin,” he said. “Those are areas such as the programs that are currently available in Wisconsin to access long term care services and all of the state programs that are run by the Department of Health and Family Services.”
Agent training must also include how qualified partnerships work and how qualified partnerships work with public and private coverage of long term care services.
If agents have not completed the training by Jan. 1, 2009, they will not be able to sell long term care policies in the state, Ruch said. While the training is not available now, programs should be ready by this summer, giving agents a six-month window to complete them.
The training will be run by state officials and insurance firms, Ruch said.
“Most of the training will be continuing education and will count toward (agents’) requirements,” he said. “And the two hours of Wisconsin-specific training is virtually completed with the Department of Health Services. It will be available on their web site and we will have a link to it on our site.”
The OCI will post updates and information regarding long-term care agent training on its web site, www.oci.wi.gov.
