Individuals and families: Individuals can benefit from having a life care plan to be financially prepared for the future needs of a loved one. The plan outlines long-term medical, psychological, and rehabilitation needs over an individual’s lifetime and can also help prevent complications by knowing what to expect and how to properly manage the individual’s unique disability.
Attorneys: A life care plan is a tool that can be used to help define the economic damages of a case by providing an accurate profile of the long term needs, recommendations, and costs associated with the onset of a particular disability.
Case Managers and Trust Administrators: A case manager can utilize a life care plan to help coordinate and facilitate the recommendations outlined in the plan and ensure that an individual receives the care that they need. Often times after money is awarded in a legal case it is placed in a trust fund with a court-approved administrator. The money is distributed over the remaining lifetime of the individual based on their anticipated needs as outlined in the life care plan.
Insurance companies: A life care plan can be used as a financial planning tool to help insurance companies set aside appropriate reserves to be able to pay claims when the claims are due. This is especially important in high exposure cases.
Government: A form of a life care plan, called a Medicare Set-Aside Arrangement, is often used to protect Medicare’s interest in personal injury cases, where Medicare is the secondary payer. Funds are placed in a special trust that is then only used to pay for future medical expenses related to the individuals injury or disability. This type of arrangement is most often utilized in worker’s compensation cases. Medicare Set-Aside law is very complicated and often changing. Another government use of life care plans is to provide compensation under the Vaccine Injury Compensation Program for vaccine related injury or death claims for covered vaccines administered on or after October 1, 1988.
