Catastrophic injuries have the potential to be the most costly type of injury a person can suffer, and that makes getting an accurate assessment of future care costs even more important. When the stakes are this high, you need help from an expert. That’s where a Certified Life Care Planner comes in.
Keep reading to learn more about catastrophic injuries and how Certified Life Care Planners like those on the team at DM Medical Cost Consulting calculate future care costs for catastrophic injuries.
What Are Catastrophic Injuries?
Before we explain how we calculate the cost of catastrophic injuries, it’s important to establish an understanding of what a catastrophic injury is.
Unfortunately, there is no one set legal definition for a catastrophic injury. However, in general, catastrophic injuries are those that lead to lifetime medical interventions and impairment with a long recovery period. More often, you will hear catastrophic injuries described as follows:
- Brain injuries
- Spine injuries
- Amputations
- Spinal cord injuries
- Severe burns
As you can see, the category is a bit loose when it comes to what is or is not a catastrophic injury. If you’re unsure about the right path forward for your personal injury case, you can consult with an experienced Certified Life Care Planner.
Which Type of Medical Cost Report Is Needed for a Catastrophic Injury Case?
Next, the path we use to calculate the cost of catastrophic injuries is determined by which type of medical cost assessment is used. In the vast majority of catastrophic injury cases, we recommend getting a Life Care Plan.
A Life Care Plan is a comprehensive and life-long assessment of the future cost of a serious injury. This type of assessment is specifically designed to serve as a comprehensive accounting of future medical care costs after an injury requiring life-long medical intervention.
How We Calculate the Cost of Catastrophic Injuries
Our Certified Life Care Planners follow a careful process from start to finish to ensure the utmost accuracy and exhaustiveness for our Life Care Plans. A rough outline of the process for creating Life Care Plans can be found below:
- Medical Records Review – We start with a thorough review of the medical facts of the case, including the injured party’s medical history to that point.
- Medical Research – Once we have a clear picture of the injured party’s condition, we can begin detailed research into the potential progression of the injury.
- Face-to-Face Interviews – As a part of our research, we conduct face-to-face interviews with healthcare providers and the injured party as needed.
- Thorough Documentation – Throughout the assessment process, we maintain complete documentation of our research and findings to ensure absolute accuracy.
- Expense Calculations – We carry out precise calculations to determine the projected future care costs of an injury.
- Report Preparation – Our reports are expertly crafted to stand up to any scrutiny.
Why You Should Hire a Certified Life Care Planner Instead of Making an Assessment Yourself
Now that you know how we calculate future care costs for catastrophic injuries, you might be asking yourself why you should hire us to make an assessment rather than making a report yourself. Before you put the outcome of your case at risk, it’s important to consider the potential benefits of getting a Life Care Plan from a Certified Life Care Planner:
- Avoid Excessive Settlements – The most important reason to hire a Certified Life Care Planner is to protect your client’s best interests and the outcome of your case. Without a Life Care Planner, your client can wind up paying too much.
- Avoid Undervalued Claims – As we said, the outcome of your case is the key reason to hire a Certified Life Care Planner instead of going it alone. A Life Care Planner can ensure you make a claim for everything your client deserves.
- Medical Expertise – When you hire a Certified Life Care Planner, you’re gaining access to a wealth of proven medical knowledge and expertise.
- Timely Assessments – Timeliness matters in personal injury cases, and we can complete an assessment as accurately and efficiently as possible.
- Airtight Reports – We have extensive experience creating Life Care Plans, and that has given us the skills to create reports that stand up in court.
- Comprehensive Research – Thanks to our medical background, you can rely on us to pursue every relevant avenue during our medical research.
When to Get a Life Care Plan for Your Catastrophic Injury Case
We explained how catastrophic injury medical costs are calculated and why you should hire a Certified Life Care Planner to do the calculations for you, but we haven’t touched on when is the right time to get a Life Care Plan for a catastrophic injury case.
Ideally, you should seek assistance from a Certified Life Care Planner to make an assessment early in the process of treatment for the injured party. However, even if treatment is already well underway, it’s not too late for us to create an accurate and complete Life Care Plan.
Get an Airtight Life Care Plan from DM Medical Cost Consulting
Catastrophic injury cases deal with some of the highest-figure settlements in the personal injury space. That’s why it’s so important to seek help from a capable and experienced Certified Life Care Planner if you have a catastrophic injury case.
Calculating the future care costs for catastrophic injuries isn’t simple, but we have the know-how and the experience needed to create a precise and comprehensive Life Care Plan for your case. Don’t risk the outcome of your case by failing to get help from an expert Life Care Planner. Get in touch with us today to learn whether or not our services are right for your case.