PA LTC training requirement
As the result of the federal Deficit Reduction Act of 2005, several states have implemented measures dealing with qualified partnership policies and long-term care insurance in general. One of the components stemming from the Deficit Reduction Act is Producer Training. The Pennsylvania Insurance Department first issued Notice 2008-03 to provide guidance to insurers and producers, and subsequently issued a draft regulation to further clarify the requirements. The newly required training is as follows.
A producer who sells, solicits, or negotiates Qualified Partnership Policies must complete:
A one-hour training course prior to any sale, solicitation or negotiation of a Qualified Partnership Policy (referred to as LTCP),
In addition, any producer selling LTC insurance in the state will need to complete:
A one-time, eight-hour training course. The eight-hour training may include the one-hour course if it is conducted prior to any sale, solicitation or negotiation of a Qualified Partnership Policy; the initial Dec. 31, 2008 deadline has been postponed in the proposed regulation, but IA&B's approved course will immediately qualify for both training and CE.
An ongoing, four-hour training course, to be completed once in every licensing period.
Comments:
1) It is important to note that this requirement is treated as "training" and not Continuing Education (CE). However, as long as the course has been filed and approved for CE, the credits will count toward CE completion as well. IA&B's course has been filed and approved.
2) In addition, since it is "training," a burden is also placed on insurers to verify that producers have completed the appropriate course in compliance with the requirement. Producers should expect to receive communication from the insurers with which they do business to ascertain that both the initial and the recurring training courses have been completed. Producers should retain their completion certificates to demonstrate compliance.
