SACRAMENTO – Insurance Commissioner Dave Jones announced Tuesday that a bill he sponsored to strengthen consumer protections for seniors has been signed into law by California Governor Jerry Brown.

Assembly Bill 2180, authored by Assemblymember Ash Kalra (D-San Jose), makes changes in law to clarify and improve long-term care insurance and accelerated death benefits statutes.

"As California's aging population and its attendant care needs continue to grow, it is important to ensure statutory improvements like this are adopted to facilitate the policy review process and help provide Californians with more insurance policy choices," said Insurance Commissioner Dave Jones. "I thank the Governor for signing this bill and Assemblymember Kalra for championing it in the Legislature."

California is home to the largest number of seniors age 65 and older in the nation and will grow from about one in five persons by 2030 to nearly one in four in 2040 and beyond.

The expanding aging population will increase the need for long-term care services and may lead to more interest in long-term care insurance as a means to finance those services.

To allow flexibility with long-term care insurance benefits, standards were established to propose an "alternate plan of care" under which an insurer would pay for services not otherwise covered by the insurance policy.

Additionally, many Californians choose to protect themselves by purchasing a life insurance policy that allows them to receive an accelerated death benefit in the event of a qualifying catastrophic or chronic illness.

AB 2180 clarifies standards and processes for the certification of an insured's chronic illness, provides standardized terms and procedures for alternate plans of care, and defines certain benefit payment, claim, and application requirements with improved clarity and/or specificity.

The changes in AB 2180 will help insurers write more compliant forms and will eliminate delays in the policy approval process, which in turn will help insurers bring new insurance products to market faster, while providing consumers more products to choose from.

These changes are effective Jan. 1, 2019.