According to where benefits are paid Long Term Care Insurance Policies can be divided into 3 broad categories - Home Care Only, Nursing Home and Residential Care Facility Only and Comprehensive.

Home Care Only
As the name suggests Home Care Only policies cover care in your own home or a community setting. This type of Long Term Care Insurance Policy does not cover care in Assisted Living Facilities or Nursing Homes. This kind of policy must include benefits for home health, adult day health care, hospice, respite care, personal care and homemaker services.

Nursing Home and Residential Care Facility Only
This kind of policy covers care in a nursing home or any place that provides assisted living care as long as this place is licensed as a Residential Care Facility for the Elderly (RCFE). The benefits of this kind of policy is not the payment for room and board in these facilities. The policy benefits include coverage of all long term care services you receive in either of these facilities upto the policy’s maximum daily benefit amount.

Some of the RCFE include small neighborhood homes also called board and care facilities, retirement homes and specialized community facilities for patients with cognitive impairment (dementia) from Alzheimer. In this kind of policy, the assisted living benefits must equal to at least 70% of the nursing home care benefit.

Comprehensive
The Comprehensive Long Term Care Insurance Policies cover costs rising out of care in a nursing home, assisted living facility, home care and community care (adult day care). Certain requirements mentioned in the policy must be met before the LTC insurance benefits can be paid with this kind of insurance. LTC Comprehensive policies sold by different companies require different criteria to be met. When you are unable to perform two activities of daily living (such as bathing, using the bathroom, dressing eating etc.) or you have a cognitive condition that requires supervision, Comprehensive Long Term Care Insurance Policiy will pay you the benefits. Whether care is provided in a nursing home, at your own home or in an assisted living facility the criteria required for the benefits remains as described above.