Providing Compliance Services for

The Long-Term Care Insurance Industry
 

ClearCert Carrier Membership

The Deficit Reduction Act and 2006 NAIC Model Act mandate accountability for training compliance upon LTCi insurance carriers. ClearCert offers an efficient solution to managing mandatory training.

Why NAIC/Partnership Training is Not the Same as Continuing Education

Both state and federal regulations mandate that the insurance carrier – not the state department of insurance – be accountable for producer training compliance. This means that the insurance carrier must decide which courses are acceptable and whether producers are in compliance. Additional differences further complicate the process.

  • Although most NAIC/Partnership courses are eligible for CE credit when taken by resident producers, CE credit is only required by three states.
  • Although the 2006 Model Act provided a recommend course content outline, most states have not implemented the content outline consistently.
  • State approval requirements and processes vary widely and do not guarantee that a course fully meets all applicable requirements (most approval processes are conducted exactly the same as typical CE approvals, meaning all courses that exceed a minimum word count and do not contain marketing or sales related material will be approved for use).
  • Only a handful of states have implemented an expert long-term care content review process.

ClearCert facilitates an ongoing dialogue between our Carrier Members in order to distill and publish the industry's authoritative state-by-state training requirements and Certified Courses from the perspective of LTCi carriers.

How can producers be aware of – but not confused by – mandatory training requirements that apply in the states in which they represent LTCi?

  • Thirty states have implemented mandatory training under the 2006 NAIC Model Act's guidelines, requiring  producers to complete initial and follow-up training courses in order to earn qualification for representing long-term care insurance
  • Each state has implemented these requirements with important - and often confusing - differences

Solution: ClearCert's LTCi Training Information Clearinghouse - ClearCert maintains the industry’s most comprehensive, authoritative resource for use by producers in researching state-by-state training requirements, including rules on reciprocity

Producers may submit business in a different state than the state in which training was completed. How can a carrier be sure the producer is qualified to represent long-term care insurance in the state where business was written?

  • Most states offer reciprocal credit for NAIC/Partnership courses taken in another state, but guidelines vary dramatically
  • Some states require that a course be taken in the producer’s resident state
  • Some states require that the producer’s resident state have partnership in place for the course to be accepted
  • Some states provide partial reciprocal credit but require additional state-specific training

Solution: ClearCert’s Completion Look-up and Reciprocity Tracker – This online, rules-based automates the process of validating training completions and producer qualification status in every NAIC/partnership state – no matter where training was taken!

  • Calculates qualified (reciprocal) status based on all training completions through ClearCert Network Providers (both general NAIC and state-specific)
  • Shows the date on which the producer’s qualified status will expire in every NAIC state (the date by which a follow-up course must be taken)

How can a carrier be sure its producers take compliant courses?

  • All NAIC/Partnership courses are eligible for CE, but CE approval does not guarantee that a course is certified for NAIC/Partnership training use
  • State approval processes are inconsistent; a course approved for use in one state may not be acceptable to another state

Solution: ClearCert's Content Certified State-by-State Course Listings - ClearCert conducts the industry's only third-party certification review of NAIC/Partnership training courses, listing Certified Courses that are fully compliant with state and federal training requirements. This process ensures that Certified Courses are also pre-approved for reciprocal credit in other states.