Frequently Asked Questions about Life Care Planning in Maryland
What is a Life Care Plan?
A life care plan is a dynamic document based upon published standards, comprehensive assessment, date analysis and research, which provides an organized, concise plan for current and future needs, with associated costs for individuals who have experienced catastrophic injury or have chronic health care needs.
How is a Life Care Plan different from any other Business Dealing I Have Had with Elder Attorneys or other Professionals?
Most lawyers deal in “transactions.” That means you pay a fee to the lawyer for a transaction: for example, the lawyer closes a real estate contract for you and you pay him a fee for the service. That’s a transaction, and once the transaction is completed, the legal representation ends.
By contrast, your Life Care Plan with us is a “relationship.” We help you with accessing and advocating for good care, and represent you in making application for public benefits, those services form part of our relationship with you—but none of them in and of itself is the relationship.
What is the Life Care Plan Relationship?
Like any good relationship, you will get the most benefit out of your Life Care Plan relationship by communicating freely with us about your health care and long-term care needs. If something happens to you, we need to know about it. We expect you to let us know when your health care and long-term care changes, or needs to be addressed.
Ho do You Coordinate Care for Me?
As we go forward with your Life Care Plan you will appreciate the limits of our relationship. That, too, is important for any good relationship. One of the most important things you need to know about our relationship is that we do not provide health care or long-term care to you. We help coordinate care for you, serve as your guide to help you get care, intervene and advocate as needed for good care, and explore ways to help you use resources, both public and private, to pay for it. But we do not actually provide care to you.
When Does the Life Care Plan Relationship End?
In most of our cases, our relationship with you ends not upon the end of a transaction but when we are no longer able to have a relationship with you: you die or you end our relationship (that is, you don’t want us to work for you any more or you move away, making it almost impossible for us to continue our relationship).