Ben Lytle’s new company will be providing independent living program services for long-term care insurance (LTCI) policyholders at Prudential Financial Inc. (NYSE:PRU).

Prudential, Newark, N.J., has picked Univita Health Inc., Scottsdale, Ariz., to give the policyholders and their relatives or other care managers counseling services, information services and care management services that might help keep the policyholders in their homes.

Univita can arrange for evaluators to determine how independent frail or disabled people are and how much help those people might need to continue to live at home.

The company also has an independent living resource library and supplies access to a network of about 200,000 home care and home services providers. Relatives or other care managers can use the home care provider service to arrange for skilled nursing care, infusion therapy, wheelchairs and other durable medical equipment, help with the activities of daily living, medication management, and other services.

Univita also runs a private, Internet-based communication system that relatives and caregivers can use to coordinate care.

Univita has health management utilization accreditation from URAC, Washington.

Lytle, the chairman of Univita, is a former chairman of Anthem Inc., Indianapolis. He helped turn Anthem into a company that was big enough and successful enough to acquire what was then WellPoint Health Networks Inc., Woodland Hills, Calif. Anthem changed its name to WellPoint Inc. — but the headquarters of the company moved to Indianapolis.

Hugh Lytle, the son of Ben Lytle, is the president of Univita.

The Lytles announced the formation of Univita in December 2008. They accelerated the development of the company by acquiring an existing caregiver Web support services company in February 2009.

Knowing that the incidence of Alzheimer’s disease doubles every five years after age 65, let’s do everything we can as LTCI professionals to make sure America is insured before tragedy strikes.
Your intrepid reporter recently had the occasion to set up a doctor’s appointment outside of normal business hours, on a Saturday afternoon. I pulled into the parking lot of the building and was met immediately by a flannel-clad fellow standing beside his red pickup truck. In one hand he held a cigarette, in the other the reins to two adorable chihuahuas. Before I entered the building, I stopped to pet the shivering dogs and struck up a light conversation with the guy.
It turns out he’s trying to get them to gobble their medicine out of the bowls set on the pavement. I share that I’m having the same problem with a cat of ours. I say goodbye and run up the stairs into the building, where I’m forced to wait in a common area until my appointment begins.
In one corner of the foyer sits a professional-looking woman — clipboard in hand, briefcase at her side — steadily and calmly posing questions to a woman in her 50s who looks a bit bewildered. As soon as I hear a question or two about “orientation to time and place,” my hair stands up, and I recognize what I’m witnessing.
Could this be the legendary Minnesota Cognitive Acuity Screen, reported to accurately identify cognitive functioning in over 98 percent of cases? Surely no one expected to be disturbed in this little-used lobby on a Saturday afternoon. Quiet as a page-turn, I slip into a chair as far away as I can, embarrassed to be there, but fascinated just the same. For obvious reasons, insurance carriers are loathe to reveal the exact content of the tests to producers, for fear we will coach our applicants.

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