Life Care Planning

When Does Someone Need a Life Care Plan?
Life care plans are completed when a patient has endured a life-changing medical condition(s) that has impacted their physical, psychological, educational, vocational, and social functioning as well as their general quality of life, and the patient will require and benefit from lifelong medical care.

What is a life care plan?
Life care plans are comprehensive documents that objectively identify and quantify the following:

• Residual Medical Conditions
• Ongoing Care Requirements
  • Medical Procedures
  • Medications
  • Medically related goods
• Costs of supplying required care
• Probable durations of care

The Basic Questions of Life Care Planning:

• What is the patient’s condition?
• What medically related goods and services does the subject’s condition require?
• How much will the medically related goods and services cost over time?

The Clinical Objectives of Life Care Planning:

• Diminish or eliminate physical and psychological pain and suffering.
• Reach and maintain the highest level of function given an individual’s unique circumstance.
• Prevent future complications to which an individual’s unique physical and mental conditions predispose them.

The life care plan is based upon comprehensive assessments, interviews and/or examinations, research and analysis, and published methodologies and standards of practice.

According to the Life Care Planning and Case Management Handbook: “For a life care plan to appropriately provide for all the needs of an individual, the plan must have a strong medical foundation. Physicians specializing in physical medicine and rehabilitation (physiatrists) are uniquely qualified to provide a strong medical foundation for life care planning based on their training and experience in providing medical and rehabilitative services to individuals with disabilities.

Dr. Shabrez Tariq is a Physical Medicine & Rehabilitation (PM&R- Physiatrist) and Pain Medicine Specialist who has practiced medicine in Houston, Texas since 2011. Dr. Tariq is a Certified Life Care Planner (CLCP) designated by the International Commission on Health Care Certification (ICHCC) and Certified Physician Life Care Planner (CPLCP) designated by AAPLCP.

Physiatrists are, through their training, experienced in dealing with individuals who have catastrophic functional problems. Physiatrists are trained to anticipate the long-term needs of their patients.