Oregon is joining the ranks of the growing number of states that now require additional training for those producers who are selling long term care insurance! Enrolled Senate Bill 191 details the requirements of LTC policies in Oregon, attempts to establish Oregon as an LTC Partnership state, sets laws and rules for coverage under an LTC policy, and describes the educational requirements.
First of all, here are a couple of links that will lead you to state documents concerning this requirement:
- For the Statement of Need and the Fiscal Impact, click HERE
- For the text of the laws and rules, click HERE
A couple of important things to note:
The training is only required if you are actually selling or planning to sell LTC. Just because you have a health or life insurance license does NOT mean you must be LTC certified.
To paraphrase portions of the Senate Bill: ”An individual may not sell, solicit or negotiate long term care insurance unless the individual is licensed as an insurance producer for health or life insurance and satisfies the following training requirements:
- A one-time training course of not less than eight hours (initial certification), and
- Ongoing training of not less than four hours in each 24-month period following the one-time training course.”
The Director may approve this LTC certification course to serve as continuing education hours as well. Some additional information:
A producer must satisfy these training requirements not
later than January 31, 2008!
Check out the embedded links for the entire legislation, and you will find the course syllabus, content requirements, deadlines, and rules for compliance.
Finally, this is NOT a continuing education requirement; this is a training mandate for only those selling LTC. The only required CE courses for all insurance licensees remains the law and ethics courses you have all been dealing with for 10 (gasp) years now.
In closing, ProSchools will be well-positioned to offer these courses to you, and I anticipate approval of our courses by the insurance division within the next month or so. ProSchools will never sell or offer a course that has not been approved or is “pending” approval. Look for info in the mail, at our website, and on all major search engines. Tell your peers the education will indeed be available!
Please let me know if you have any questions or concerns, and I’ll be happy to help!