LifeCare Collaborative develops a formal Life Care Plan for a specific person’s healthcare needs. It is a customized healthcare road-map which gives litigating attorneys, courts, insurance companies, elder-care attorneys and others a clear idea how to anticipate both what will be needed and how much that may cost. For attorneys, that may mean providing an objective basis for economic loss valuation.

Generating the Comprehensive Life Care Plan. The plan encompasses both present and future medical care and rehabilitation needs. It is generated based on medical history obtained from thorough review of medical records, interview of the patient, comprehensive home evaluation; consultation and coordination of care with the client’s medical team; additional medical consultation; medical research and incorporation of practice standards. Once a clear picture of healthcare needs emerges, we estimate expenses for durable medical equipment, consumable supplies, professional fees, hospitalization, institutional or home care, rehabilitation services, and other needs. We then present the completed Comprehensive Life Care Plan to you and we discuss it together.

Details of Our Process:

Step 1: Creating the Comprehensive Life Care Plan:

1. After agreeing to terms, our team will embark on a full review of the client’s medical records and client preliminary client interview.

2. As appropriate, we may conduct an in-person interview with the client and family to coordinate the client’s needs.

3. Our team will then contact the client’s treating physician to determine existing healthcare recommendations and projections for future medical care.

4. We may advise additional consultations when appropriate to a comprehensive analysis of the client’s health care needs. It may be appropriate to include bring in experts with backgrounds in nursing, pediatric nursing, pediatric physical medicine and rehabilitation, pediatric neurology, vocational rehabilitation, occupational therapy, physical therapy, neurology, nephrology or other internal medicine subspecialties, psychiatry and others.

5. We will work within the geographic area to define projected costs of therapies, medical evaluations, equipment, home renovations, etc., as indicated by your client’s diagnosis.

6. We will research standards of care and medical literature to support our conclusions.

7. Our financial analysis is far more than a listing of elements of care, though our examination of likely and at-risk medical needs is highly detailed and insightful. We research the likely impact of the injury on life expectancy, and evaluate the potential the individual has to continue work or retrain. We estimate lost income, if any, and report medical expense projections along with potential lost income.

Step 2: Authenticating the Comprehensive Life Care Plan:

At the completion of the Comprehensive Life Care Plan, we have the team leaders authenticate the plan by signing it, creating a document that you can use in discussion, negotiation, mediation, deposition, or trial.

Note that Steps 1 and 2 are included in Life Care Collaborative’s  fees. Proceeding to Step 3 is solely at the discretion of the client.

Step 3: Testifying about the Comprehensive Life Care Plan:

In situations where litigation requires an estimate of anticipated expenses, the Comprehensive Life Care Plan provides an objective basis to project such expenses and other losses such as lost income -generating potential. When the Comprehensive Life Care Plan is contested, LifeCare Collaborative may be asked to recommend a professional who may then be asked by an attorney to testify to the authenticity of the plan. The testifying expert may be a certified Life Care Planner or a physician with extensive knowledge and experience about the needs of the specific patient.

Additional Services. LifeCare Collaborative is available to review life care plans generated by other consultants, as may be the case when a plaintiff presents a life care plan and the defense needs to have the plan reviewed and critiqued.

• LifeCare Collaborative is available for independent medical examinations. This may be helpful to an attorney needed to get an outside, independent clinical assessment of the patient’s status.

• LifeCare Collaborative is available to other Life Care Planners who may want to have us assist them with specific components as they generate their own plan, such as case review and summary, independent medical examination, home assessment, cost estimation, global summarization and others. We use a proprietary system for cost estimation and expense analysis which we can use to provide the costing data to be used by outside parties to generate their plans or for attorneys to use in the analysis and critique of outside plans.