New York Laws
Title 1 - State Office for the Aging
217-A - Long Term Care Insurance Education and Outreach Program.

(a) educational and informational materials in print, audio, visual,
electronic or other media;
(b) public service announcements, advertisements, media campaigns,
workshops, mass mailings, conferences or presentations;
(c) establishment of a toll-free telephone hotline and electronic
services to provide information; and
(d) establishment of long term care insurance resource centers within
each area agency on aging.
5. Long term care insurance resource centers shall, within amounts
available, provide the general public with the following items or
services:
(a) educational and informational materials in print, audio, visual,
electronic or other media;
(b) public service announcements, advertisements, media campaigns,
workshops, mass mailings, conferences or presentations; and
(c) counseling, information, referral services, and direct assistance
in choosing and obtaining long term care insurance. Direct assistance
shall, within amounts available, include but not be limited to
assistance with the following:
(i) planning for the financing of long term care;
(ii) understanding policy options, benefits and appeal rights;
(iii) obtaining the coverage needed and the appropriate benefits; and
(iv) avoiding or reporting illegal billing, fraudulent practices or
scams.

Each long term care insurance resource center shall be responsible,
within amounts available, for providing a sufficient number of staff
positions (including volunteers) necessary to provide and carry out the
services of the long term care insurance education and outreach program,
provided that at least one position shall be filled by an individual who
is employed full time and paid by the area agency on aging. The long
term care insurance resource center shall be responsible for ensuring
that its staff persons have no conflict of interest in providing the
services described in subdivision four of this section.
6. Annually, in order to receive funding, each area agency on aging
shall submit a service plan and proposed budget for the operation of a
long term care insurance resource center to the state program
coordinator for approval. An area agency on aging shall be eligible to
receive funds in an amount of up to fifty thousand dollars, except that
an area agency on aging located within a city of one million or more
shall be eligible to receive funds in an amount of up to one hundred
thousand dollars.
7. The department of health shall produce, post on its website, make
available to others for reproduction, or contract with others to develop
such materials required by this section. The material produced pursuant
to this section shall be culturally and linguistically appropriate for
the communities served by the long term care insurance resource centers.
These materials shall be made available to the public free of charge.
8. In exercising any of their powers under this section, the
commissioner of health and/or the director of the office for the aging
may consult with appropriate agencies, organizations, and consumers and
providers of long term care insurance or organizations representing
them.
9. In addition to state funds allocated for programs under this
section, the commissioner of health and/or the director of the office
for the aging may accept funding from public sources for these programs,
and may undertake joint or cooperative programs with other public
entities or a private not-for-profit corporation which is neither a
provider or regulator of long term care insurance, or an affiliate or
unit of such agency or corporation.
10. The commissioner of health, the director of the office for the
aging and the superintendent of financial services shall issue an annual
report to the governor, the speaker of the assembly, and the temporary
president of the senate. Such report shall contain, at a minimum, the
following information: the number of individuals who have received
counseling and assistance by the long term care insurance education and
outreach program, their ages and their occupations; whether these
individuals have purchased a long term care insurance policy, and if so,
the policy that was purchased; a description of all of the services,
including counseling, education and outreach services, being provided by
the long term care education and outreach program, broken down by
county; the activities used to promote the partnership for long term
care program; and a description of the long term care education and
outreach program's funding sources and whether they are adequate. The
report shall also contain recommendations for targeting specific age
groups to buy long term care insurance, creating new methods of
promoting the purchase of long term care insurance, and improving long
term care insurance products.
11. An area agency on aging may use up to five percent of the total of
any funds provided to an area agency on aging pursuant to this section
for administration.
* NB Added Ch. 58/2004 Part B §23, language juxtaposed per Ch.
642/2004 §12

* NB Section number supplied by the Legislative Bill Drafting
Commission