Long term care is a term that you most likely have heard of before. However, you may not know exactly what it is or what type of care qualifies as long term care. In general, long term care or long term health care, is any chronic treatment of a health issue, injury or disease.
The most common form of long term care is nursing home care. This type of care involves residential supervisions, medical monitoring and medication distribution. It is a type of care that most people will need at some point in their elderly years.
Another common form of long term care is treatments for chronic diseases like heart disease, diabetes and cancer. It includes things like regular doctor visits, medical supplies like blood glucose test strips and regular inpatient treatments like surgery and scans. This type of care also includes chronic medication prescriptions.
Obesity can also require long term care. For example, when you are severely overweight you have a higher chance of development medical complications like high blood pressure, diabetes and circulation problems. All of these issues will need constant monitoring and treatment. Finally, if mobility is lost then the obese patient can end up needing nursing home care, hospitalization or surgery.
Long term care can be delivered in an institution, at home or in a clinical setting. Knowing where you want your LTC to be delivered is important when selecting the type of long term care insurance that you want to buy. This is why it is important to not only understand what long term care is, but also what your options are in regards to service delivery.
