(1) The Mississippi Long-Term Care Partnership Program is created within the Division of Medicaid.

(2) The Division of Medicaid in cooperation with the Insurance Commissioner shall submit applications to the United States Department of Health and Human Services necessary to obtain approval to:

(a) Establish a process for precertification of long-term care insurance policies that meets all the requirements of the program;

(b) Establish minimum requirements that long-term care insurance policies must meet in order to qualify for precertification, including without limitation:

(i) A conspicuous provision alerting consumers to the availability of consumer information and public education provided by the Division of Medicaid;

(ii) A guarantee that each insured has an option to cover home- and community-based services in addition to nursing facility care;

(iii) Inflation protection;

(iv) Periodic reporting to include explanations of benefits and a record of insurance payments that count toward Medicaid resource exclusion; and

(v) Reports to the program as the Division of Medicaid may require;

(c) Include provisions for reciprocal agreements with other states to extend the Medicaid eligibility protections in paragraph (d) of this subsection to purchasers of long-term care policies in those states, if at the time the long-term care policies were issued, the policies qualified for precertification in this state;

(d) Include provisions that Medicaid eligibility determinations in the long-term care or related waiver categories for individuals who are the beneficiaries of precertified long-term care insurance policies shall include a resource disregard of One Dollar ($1.00) for every dollar of long-term care insurance benefits paid under the individual’s prequalified long-term care insurance policy for long-term care services; and

(e) Include an outreach program to educate consumers about the need for long-term care, the availability of long-term care insurance, and the asset protections available under this subsection.