What if your beloved is severely hurt in an accident? It could be a traumatic brain injury or a spinal injury. Or perhaps there are extreme burns and major orthopedic complications. Most of these life-altering injuries require long-term treatment and surgical intervention. In such instances, you would need to make use of a life care plan. It will be part of a future personal injury lawsuit if you decide to go that route.
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A life care plan is beneficial in case of complicated injuries. There are specific lifelong care requirements that need to be taken care of when catastrophic injuries occur. It is indeed mentally traumatizing and financially draining to suffer from severe injuries, which is precisely why you may need, at some point, a life care plan.
Defining a Life Care Plan
A life care plan can be defined as an integral tool for medical case management. It can be used in consultation with families, patients, case managers, and rehabilitation professionals. It clarifies the long-term psychological, medical, and rehabilitation needs of a person throughout her or his lifetime.
A life care plan is like a roadmap for individuals to understand how they can handle health expenses in the future, physical impairments, medical needs, and other unexpected care costs over a lifetime.
This type of arrangement can be used in personal injury cases to help establish the compensation the injured individual, known as the plaintiff, will be due. With a life care plan, the jury and the judge get a clear view of the costs involved in the plaintiff’s care. It also showcases the effects of personal injuries on the plaintiff’s life.
In a nutshell, a life care planner is a very useful professional because it acts as an unbiased bystander for the prosecutor.
The Objectives of a Life Care Plan
There are three main objectives of a Life Care Plan:
- Ensuring that the elderly and the injured get the required care in a residential facility or home. It also helps with maintaining the quality of life they desire.
- Locating private and public sources to help the injured pay up for long-term care. Injury treatments and surgical interventions can be costly. For this reason, a life care plan can help the wounded and the elderly.
- Bringing solace or peace of mind. Everyone wants their loved ones to stay safe and healthy. Getting proper treatment/care is vital. But the most crucial pointer is to preserve the family’s current resources.
What’s in a Life Care Plan?
Life care plans are based on the patient’s current and estimated health care needs, but here is a quick sneak peek of what one such plan may cover:
- Projected evaluations
- Medication
- Orthopedic equipment costs
- Home care
- Facility-based injured care needs
- Wheelchair prescriptions
- Wheelchair accessories/maintenance
- Supply needs
- Diagnostic testing
- Surgical treatment
- Home furnishing
- Recreational equipment
- Leisure equipment
- Architectural renovations
- Transportation costs
Who Will Prepare the Life Care Plan?
A personal injury lawyer or a medical malpractice attorney will work with a rehabilitation expert to prepare a life care plan in most cases. They are experts in this aspect and have the required experience to analyze the injuries of an individual. Rehabilitation experts and lawyers can determine the type of medical intervention needed and the approximate expenses.
In some cases, medical professionals such as nurses and physicians who belong to therapy/rehabilitation fields will put together the plan on your behalf.
Once an expert has reviewed your medical records and all the facts regarding the case, they will prepare an elaborate report with all the current and potential medical needs and costs. The experts will also mention any surgical procedures and possible complications that could increase the cost of your care in the future.
In such cases, the medical expert will meet with the patient and their lawyer. A life care plan (as the name suggests) is a detailed review of the patient’s future medical costs. It includes medical devices, medications, treatments, surgeries, therapy, and rehabilitation that the patient needs or might need based on their injuries or life-altering chronic conditions.
But preparing a life care plan comes with additional costs. Hence, if you want your future medical expenses to be fully covered as well, get in touch with a team of life care planning lawyers in your area. They will help you build a safety net for when the disaster strikes under the guise of a severe injury, chronic illness, and even old age.
With a BA in communications and paralegal experience, Irma C. Dengler decided to combine her skills. In the past, when she was involved in proceedings of her own, she witnessed firsthand the weight of legal language. A convoluted terminology can easily disarm the average American. Therefore, she set off to empower her readers by making the law more accessible to them. Although she has covered all areas of civil and criminal law, insurance-related issues, and her area of specialty are personal injury cases.
The Editorial Team at Healthcare Business Today is made up of skilled healthcare writers and experts, led by our managing editor, Daniel Casciato, who has over 25 years of experience in healthcare writing. Since 1998, we have produced compelling and informative content for numerous publications, establishing ourselves as a trusted resource for health and wellness information. We offer readers access to fresh health, medicine, science, and technology developments and the latest in patient news, emphasizing how these developments affect our lives.
