Civil Service 

Retirement 

System 

Federal Employees’ 

Group Life 

Insurance Program 

Federal Employees 

Health Benefits 

Program 

Federal Employees 

Retirement 

System 

Long Term 

Care Insurance 

Program 

United States 

Office of 

Personnel Management 

The Federal Government’s Human Resources Agency

Retirement and Insurance Service 

Benefits Administration Letter 

Number: 01-903 Date: May 15, 2001 

Subject: Long Term Care Insurance Program: Letter from OPM’s Acting Director

The Letter 

You may have already seen the letter that our Acting Director, Mr. Steven R. Cohen, recently 

sent to the heads of all departments and independent agencies. We also emailed a copy of his 

letter to members of the Human Resources Management Council. If you haven’t already, please 

take a few minutes to read the attached letter. 

Implementation Coordinators 

Mr. Cohen asked department and agency heads to support the new long term care insurance 

program and designate an Implementation Coordinator to direct and coordinate implementation 

and roll-out activities for their department/agency. We expect the Implementation Coordinators 

to become supporters of the product and to be available throughout the enrollment period that 

starts sometime in 2002 and may extend into 2003. We will work with a representative team of 

Implementation Coordinators to develop a roll-out strategy that will be successful and doable 

from an agency perspective. 

Federal Benefits Officers 

We recognize the vital role that Federal Benefits Officers and other agency human resources 

professionals already play with respect to retirement and insurance benefits for employees. You 

may be asked to serve as an Implementation Coordinator, or you could be working with someone 

else. Either way, I imagine you’ll be involved. 

The Good News 

As we envision the program, we are NOT expecting agency human resources professionals to 

become conversant with long term care issues and be responsible for educating their employees 

about the new program. This is very different from the way we handle the retirement, health and 

life insurance programs. In those programs, the HR professionals ARE the front-line for 

providing information about the programs. 
2

We envision that this new program will take an entirely different direction -- the long term care 

insurance carrier will be responsible for educating employees and answering their questions 

using such avenues as auditorium meetings, the web site, a toll-free phone number, satellite 

broadcasts, pamphlets, enrollment kits, etc. 

But we are NOT expecting HR professionals to become long term care experts. We are not 

expecting you and other HR professionals to converse knowledgeably with employees about 

activities of daily living, non-forfeiture benefits, inflation protection, claims triggers, estate 

planning, etc. That's what the insurance carrier will do. What we will expect is that when an 

employee approaches you with a question, you would know to refer him/her to the toll-free 

number (not set up yet), refer him/her to the website, the pamphlets, the schedule of employee 

meetings, etc. HR professionals will be conduits in directing employees where to go for 

answers, as opposed to answering the questions directly. 

And we will tell you what the information channels will be (through Benefits Administration 

Letters, the annual Federal Benefits Conference, our new email listserv (described below), our 

HR page on the long term care website (www.opm.gov/insure/ltc/hr.htm), etc.) 

We already know that we WILL need your help with: 

arranging for the distribution of educational and marketing materials, 

setting up employee briefings, 

showing and possibly participating in satellite broadcasts, and 

interacting with our insurance partners and us during the open enrollment period. 

Please stay tuned for more information on how you can help with these items. 

Listserv 

As you’ll also see in the attached letter, we set up an automated email “listserv” for human 

resources professionals. We’d like each benefits officer and designated Implementation 

Coordinator to subscribe to the listserv. We plan to use it throughout the educational and 

enrollment process. We’re also asking human resources professionals at field installations to 

subscribe to the listserv to receive information about the upcoming open enrollment period. 

Instructions on how to subscribe are included in the attached letter. 

As soon as a substantial number of people subscribe, we will begin sending out detailed 

information via the listserv and asking for feedback on a number of items. 

We sure appreciate your support of this exciting new program! 

 Frank D. Titus 

 Assistant Director 

` for Long Term Care 

Attachment 
3

Attachment to BAL 01-903 

 [Signed May 4, 2001] 

MEMORANDUM FOR HEADS OF DEPARTMENTS AND INDEPENDENT 

 AGENCIES 

FROM: STEVEN R. COHEN 

 Acting Director 

Subject: Long Term Care Implementation Coordinators 

I need your help in identifying an agency coordinator who can work with us as we implement the 

new long term care insurance program. 

As you know, the Long Term Care Security Act authorized the Office of Personnel Management 

to contract for a long term care insurance program for the “Federal family” - active employees, 

members of the uniformed services, civilian and military retirees, their survivors, spouses and a 

host of other qualified relatives. 

Since the passage of the law in September 2000, we have been meeting with stakeholder groups, 

industry representatives, and independent experts. One result is a tentative product design that 

we have posted at www.opm.gov/insure/ltc. Another is gaining an understanding of the critical 

importance of active employer support and endorsement to ensure a successful group long term 

care insurance offering. While our education and marketing plans will not be fully developed 

until we have selected our long term care insurance partner(s) this October, I expect that they will 

include opportunities for your personal involvement. I am writing to request your active support 

and participation as we develop our plans. 

We already know that we will need support in many areas, including: 

arranging for the distribution of educational and marketing materials, 

setting up employee briefings, 

participating in satellite broadcasts, and 

interacting with our insurance partners and us during the open enrollment period. 

To that end, I am asking you to identify a Long Term Care Insurance (LTCI) Implementation 

Coordinator who can direct and coordinate implementation and roll-out activities in your agency. 

 Benefits Officers for the retirement and insurance programs already exist in all agencies. We 

expect LTCI Implementation Coordinators to become supporters of the product and to be 

available throughout the enrollment period that will begin in 2002 and may extend into 2003. We 

will work with a representative team of Implementation Coordinators to develop a roll-out 

strategy that will be successful and doable from an agency perspective. 
4

While the LTCI program will not be operational until October 2002, we are developing an email 

“listserv” of the designated Implementation Coordinators now, so that we can interact with them 

throughout the planning process. We also encourage Coordinators to ask their field installations 

to subscribe to the listserv to receive information about the upcoming open enrollment period. 

Instructions on how to subscribe are attached. 

We appreciate and thank you for your support of this very important benefits program. If you 

have any questions, please call Frank Titus, Assistant Director for Long Term Care, or a member 

of his team at 202-606-1413. 

Attachment 
5

Attachment 

How to Subscribe to the New Listserv for Long Term Care Insurance 

1. Send an email to listserv@listserv.opm.gov 

a. Put whatever you want in the subject line of your email. The subject is not used in the 

subscription process. 

b. In the BODY of the message type: 

SUBSCRIBE LTCINFO firstname lastname, substituting your own first and last names. 

c. Do not put anything else in the body of the email. 

d. The computer stores the email address that you used to send the message as the email 

address that you wish to receive the listserv emails. So if your outgoing email address is 

different from the address you want to receive the incoming email, you cannot subscribe 

this way. Instead you must send an email to Laura Lawrence at ljlawren@opm.gov and 

explain the problem. She can add you to the list manually. 

2. You should receive a CONFIRMATION email soon after sending your SUBSCRIBE email. 

If you do not, then there is something wrong with your outgoing email message. Please doublecheck that you followed the instructions exactly. If you continue to have problems, please email 

Laura Lawrence at ljlawren@opm.gov. 

3. Follow the instructions in the Confirmation email reply exactly. You will not be subscribed 

to the listserv until you reply to the Confirmation email as stated in that message. The 

Confirmation email will also contain instructions on how to cancel your subscription. 

4. Encourage other human resources professionals to subscribe. This listserv will operate well 

into 2003, so please make sure that new HR personnel subscribe when they come onboard. We 

need your support to make this work! 

If you have any questions, please call Ms. Lawrence at 202-606-1433.