Certified Life Care Planners
Future medical expenses are often the largest element of economic damages in personal injury cases. RPC prepares life care plans (LCPs) for plaintiffs and defendants. Defendants need a certified life care planner to review the plaintiff’s LCP for proper methods and to verify if the future medical expenses are medically necessary and related to the injury.
Properly calculating future medical expenses for a jury requires an LCP showing the type, quantity, timing, and cost of the injured party’s current and future care needs. There are several ways plaintiff LCPs, including physician life care planners, improperly inflate future medical expenses:
- Recommending services never prescribed or performed by treating physicians
- Using prices for brand-name drugs instead of generic versions when there is no medical need for the more expensive brand-name drug
- Recommending lifetime durations for medications, therapy, imaging, and other services without consulting treating physicians and/or contrary to generally accepted treatment guidelines
- Recommending excessive costs for home care and “essential services” when the plaintiff has not needed these services, and no treating physician has prescribed them
- Recommending surgery without obtaining a surgeon’s opinion on whether the surgery is medically necessary
- Where the plaintiff life care planner is a physician, recommending services outside their specialty with no supporting opinion from a physician in the relevant specialty
In analyzing a plaintiff LCP, RPC’s certified life care planners work with physicians and other providers in the specific specialty areas relevant to the case. By doing so, they can more accurately determine the services, equipment, and supplies the plaintiff will need to maximize their ability to function for the rest of their life. Using the opinions of experts, our life care planners exclude any unnecessary services in the plaintiff’s LCP and identify any areas where the plaintiff life care planner failed to follow proper life care planning methods.
RPC economists can also determine the reasonable value of the items in the plaintiff’s LCP. If the plaintiff has insurance coverage, such as Medicare or workers’ compensation, we can reprice the plaintiff’s LCP and RPC’s LCP to the rates that would be paid under that insurance coverage. Our economists always apply proper medical inflation rates and discount rates to determine the present value of the cost to fund the LCP.
RPC has prepared and reviewed LCPs for individuals with a wide range of major injuries. All LCPs and reviews include extensive documentation to support the positions taken. Our consistent approach and extensive documentation result in creditable reports and testimony.
To discuss a case, contact Athenna Dill, CPC, Personal Injury Case Manager at 512.371.8005 or email adill@rpcconsulting.com.
Lean More About RPC’s Certified Life Care Planning Services Here