Good afternoon:

We hope you are recovered from Halloween sugar shock and your insulin levels are within a healthy range by now.

This month's ClientCall will tell you what we currently know about long term care provisions in the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA).

Do you feel the need for more secure communications? Our Entrepreneur.com highlights sending secure email. Please go to our Entrepreneur.com section for more information and check out InternetIntel for links to companies that provide these services.

Time to Fall Back: posted on our BulletinBoard are details about next weekend's time change.

started last Spring; some aspects of PPACA are already in force, others won't be in effect until 2014.

Many of our clients have questions regarding long term care under the new law. We're happy to provide this information and answer any questions you may have about long term care or any aspect of your employee benefits.

You may not know this, but tucked into the health reform law that passed in March is a national voluntary insurance program for purchasing long-term-care services; it's called the Community Living Assistance Services and Support (CLASS) Act. CLASS will be funded by voluntary contributions paid by working adults through payroll deductions.

The program could supplement the private insurance that you purchase to cover the costs of long-term-care services, most of which are not covered by traditional health insurance or Medicare. Long Term Care policies usually pay for several types of care, including nursing home care, assisted living care and home health care services.

More than 10 million Americans may need long-term-care services at some point and it's estimated that even more Americans may need LTC in the future.

With the structure of the new program, how should your workers plan for their long-term care? One thing they should not do is rely solely on CLASS and assume it will take care of all their needs.

What you need to know about CLASS:

- It's open to everyone

- It is a "guaranteed issue," meaning that you can enroll no matter regardless of pre-existing conditions (a provision that is often not available with other long-term-care insurance).

- You may find that CLASS offers insufficient benefits

While many details of the program have yet to be determined (the Department of Health and Human Services has until October 2012 to fully define the CLASS), the Congressional Budget Office expects the benefit amount to average $75 a day and be no less than $50 a day in the form of a cash benefit. That's the amount of money that can be used to pay for home health care services, nursing home care, assisted living care or adult day care.

CLASS isn't intended to fully cover all costs associated with long-term care, but it may help offset the some costs. Benefits experts are advising consumers to shop around in the private market for more affordable and comprehensive LTC policies.

It's also important to note that the insurance offered through CLASS doesn't come with some of the unique features of plans offered by many private carriers. For example, it doesn't have a marital discount (consumers can get a 10% to 20% discount on their policies if both you and your spouse purchase insurance privately). Nor does CLASS have a survivorship benefit, in which one partner's premium is waived with full benefits if the other dies and the couple have held their policy for at least 10 years.

A lot can change in the next two years and we'll keep you updated about CLASS and its features, as well as other employee benefit products.

Finally, we wish to let you know that our agency formed an alliance with an investment adviser - specifically, to support the needs of our clients. There is no doubt that these are challenging times and many are concerned about our nation's economy and the legislation that is moving forward. With those concerns in mind, we encourage you to schedule a no-fee, no obligation visit with our agency's investment adviser. We believe that a consultation may be very beneficial to you and your business.