Today, CREW asked Senator Chuck Grassley (R-IA) to investigate the activities of the Seattle-based Center for Long-Term Care Reform and the Center's director Stephen Moses. Our letter to Senator Grassley can be found here.

Following a March 2007 New York Times exposé indicating that many long-term care insurers are improperly denying claims, Sen. Grassley recently announced a probe into the long-term care insurance industry. CREW is asking that Sen. Grassley add Moses's activities to that investigation.

Moses has spent the past decade posing as an independent expert from a respected think tank that analyzes the need for long-term care insurance, but is in fact serving as a front for the long-term care industry.

According to his website, Moses has testified as an independent expert on long-term care before two-thirds of the nation’s state legislatures. He has been quoted in stories around the country and has been actively working to create legislation to benefit the industry in states including Kansas and Texas.

Moses is not, however, actually independent. When he launched the Center for Long-Term Care Reform in 1998, he began actively soliciting the industry for contributions, stating “The long-term care insurance industry -- and LTC providers whose financial survival spends on the growth of private financing -- must take steps to encourage private sector solutions. The Center for Long-Term Financing is uniquely positioned to promote this effort." and, "the Center increases long-term care insurance sales remarkably." He has touted his appearance as an impartial expert claiming, "our established credibility as an independent third-party voice allows us to perform in essential roles that no one else can fill for reasons of perceived bias and self-interest."

In January, 2008 Moses will begin a "National Long-Term Care Consciousness Tour," "...tak[ing] the Center's message of personal responsibility and rational LTC public policy to six regions of the country for two months each." Details on the "tour" are available at
here. On his website, Moses publicly thanks his industry donors or "National LTC Consciousness Tour Guides," for making the tour possible.

After sending the letter to Senator Grassley, CREW's Melanie Sloan said:

Stephen Moses is a far cry from an impartial authority; rather, he is a shill for the long-term care industry. Senator Grassley has a long history of working to improve the quality of long-term care services and CREW hopes he will take a hard look at Mr. Moses's activities.