By Steven Syre
The Intercompany Long Term Care Insurance Conference Association recently presented Marc Cohen with its first Special Recognition Award.
Marc Cohen, co-director of the LeadingAge LTSS Center @UMass Boston, has been honored for a career of contributions to the field of long-term care finance by the Intercompany Long Term Care Insurance Conference Association. The award is the first Special Recognition Award presented by the association.
The award nomination cited work by Cohen and colleagues that “was responsible for bringing together key design parameters and gerontology knowledge that created the foundation for today’s long-term care finance product.”
The nomination said that Cohen “works with the greatest integrity and collaborates broadly with all spectrums of the aging community in both the public and private sectors, industry, and government. His dedication to the field and his commitment to work excellence is unparalleled.”
The conference’s Special Recognition Award was created to highlight the contributions of long-term care providers, financiers, regulators, legislators, and research or policy experts in the field. Nominees are expected to exhibit an “extraordinary commitment to the industry through ingenuity, length of service, and dedication.”
Cohen has conducted ongoing research about the long-term care insurance market for more than 2 decades, first at Brandeis University, later at LifePlans Inc., and now at the LTSS Center. Most recently, he presented a new financing concept for long-term services and supports that combines private insurance with public catastrophic coverage. Cohen and colleague Judith Feder of Georgetown University and the Urban Institute presented the plan in January at a conference hosted by the Bipartisan Policy Center.
In addition to his role at the LTSS Center, Cohen is also a professor at UMass Boston’s McCormack Graduate School, and research director of the Center for Consumer Engagement in Health Innovation at Community Catalyst, a national nonprofit advocacy organization.
Cohen said the Special Recognition Award was “truly humbling, knowing how many incredibly dedicated, smart, and committed people there are in our field. It’s a wonderful feeling to know that the work you chose to pursue in your professional life is viewed by people that you respect and care about as worthy and having made a difference.”