Aetna Short-Term Care Insurance Plan Options
Aetna offers a variety of supplemental insurance products under the umbrella of its Protection Series lineup. Two of these plans include Recovery Care and Home Care Plus; these are both STC policies with different benefits. Both policies are available to applicants between the ages of 50 to 89. While this age range is typically much better than many LTC insurance plans, it’s not as flexible as STC insurance carriers like Guarantee Trust Life, which doesn’t institute any age restrictions on several of its STC plans.
FYI: Unsure what kind of insurance you need for retirement? Check out our guide to insurance for seniors!
There’s some confusion about Aetna’s STC insurance offerings, as the company doesn’t actively promote them as much as its other insurance products, and its plans aren’t available in many states. Aetna also provides its STC insurance plans through its subsidiary, Continental Life. Nonetheless, it’s still one of the largest providers of STC insurance.
Recovery Care
Recovery Care is Aetna’s standard plan for temporary stays in facilities. It covers all of the following types of care if you need assistance with at least two activities of daily living:
You can customize the benefit period, waiting period, and daily maximum benefits of your Recovery Care plan with the following options:
- Benefit Period: 90, 180, 270, or 360 days (maximum lifetime benefits are double your standard benefit period)
- Waiting Period: 0, 20, or 100 days
- Daily Maximum Benefit: Up to $300 per day
The Recovery Care plan also offers a daily hospital indemnity, which can be used to pay for care in a hospital due to injury or illness, as well as observational hospital stays. While you have fewer options to customize the hospital indemnity benefit, this component of the Recovery Care plan has its own benefit period, daily maximum, and lifetime maximum:
- Benefit Period: 20 days per period of care
- Daily Maximum Benefit: Up to $300 per day
- Lifetime Maximum: 365 days
This plan pays out benefits directly to the policyholder and the premiums don’t increase with age. You can also add a rider to get home health care coverage. This makes Recovery Care ideal for older adults who want the security of a facility-centered STC insurance plan, with the flexibility to customize a plan based on their budget and anticipated needs.
Home Care Plus
Home Care Plus is Aetna’s STC insurance plan for older adults who only want in-home care. In the event that you need temporary care, the Home Care Plus plan will cover the following:
- Physical therapy
- Speech therapy
- Respiratory therapy
- Medically necessary treatments
The Home Care Plus plan also comes with the same built-in daily hospital indemnity benefit as the Recovery Care plan. To ensure coverage at home, all care must be provided by a home care practitioner or a staff member from a licensed home health care agency. Any treatment must be deemed medically necessary by your physician, and practitioner visits must take place at least three times per week for the duration of your care.
Did You Know? 65 percent of older adults require some kind of home care, with care lasting for an average of two years.2
You can customize your Home Care Plus plan to choose the benefit period, waiting period, and weekly maximum benefits that work best for you:
- Benefit Period: 13, 26, 39, or 52 weeks (maximum lifetime benefits are double your standard benefit period)
- Waiting Period: 0 or 20 days
- Weekly Maximum Benefit: Up to $1,200 per week
The Home Care Plus plan is generally best if you know that you want to receive treatment at home. Plus, the plan comes with built-in coverage for hospital stays and optional riders for cancer treatment, emergency room visits, and ambulance services.
