The purpose of the American Academy of Physician Life Care Planner’s Standards of Practice is to provide guidelines and professional standards for physician life care planners.
Standard 1: Qualification
Certified Physician Life Care Planners (life care planning physicians who have earned and maintain the CPLCP™ Certification):
- Are medical doctors who maintain active medical licenses
- Are experts in physical medicine and rehabilitation, and are board certified by the American Board of Physical Medicine & Rehabilitation.
- Are Certified Life Care Planners (CLCP) as designated by International Health Care Commission on Health Care Certification (ICHCC).
- Are Certified Physician Life Care Planners (CPLCP) as designated by the Certified Physician Life Care Planners Certification Board.
- Participate in required continuing education in the subject of life care planning.
Standard 2: Discovery, Collection & Analysis
Discovery, Collection & Analysis is the process the physician life care planners engages in when collecting and analyzing information about a subject and his/her condition.
- Physician life care planners employ a methodological and comprehensive approach to the discovery and collection of relevant information about a subject and his/her condition.
- Physician life care planners review and consider all available medical records, and other relevant and/or available documentation.
- Whenever possible, and/or practicable, physician life care planners perform personal interviews and examinations of subjects to: collect information which support the objective findings included in the medical records and other relevant documents; and to discover objective finding which may not be identified in the medical records and/or other relevant documents.
- Physician life care planners endeavor to discover and consider, in addition to other relevant information: general information about the subject, the subject’s cause of relevant injury/illness, diagnostic studies undergone by the subject, procedures undergone by the subject, observational documents about the subject, documented opinions from the subject’s treating physicians, subjective complaints obtained by during the personal interview and examination of the subject which correlate with the objective findings in the subject’s medical records, the subject’s biological symptoms and systems, the subject’s health history, social history, medication history, etc.
Standard 3: Formulation
Formulation describes the practices a physician life care planners employs to formulate opinions regarding subjects’ diagnostic conditions, impairments, disabilities, probable durations of care, and future medical requirements.
- When formulating medical and rehabilitative opinions, physician life care planners remain within the bounds of their areas of expertise and seek collaboration with other experts whenever necessary and practicable.
- Physician life care planners formulate medical opinions regarding subjects’ diagnostic conditions based upon consideration of all relevant, objective findings obtained during the processes of discovery, collection and analysis.
- Physician life care planners formulate medical opinions regarding subjects’ physical and/or mental impairments by considering all prospective, medically probable effects of subjects’ diagnostic conditions.
- Physician life care planners formulate medical opinions regarding subject’s disabilities by considering all prospective, medically probable effects of subjects’ impairments.
- Physician life care planners formulate opinions regarding probable duration of care based upon published, peer-reviewed methods and standards.
- Physician life care planners formulate medical opinions regarding subjects’ future medical requirements by considering all medically-related goods and services that will be required by subjects—based upon the physician life care planner’s education, training, skill and professional experience, and a reasonable degree of medical probability—in order to accomplish the Clinical Objectives of Life Care Planning.
- The medical opinions of physician life care planners are characterized by high degrees of linearity and continuity, i.e. physician life care planners are able to correlate the medical opinions they formulate, e.g. they are able to correlate specific opinions regarding a subject’s diagnostic conditions to specific information obtained during the process of discovery, collection and analysis; they are able to correlate specific opinions regarding disabilities to specific diagnostic conditions, and they are able to correlate specific opinions regarding a subjects’ future medical requirements to specific impairments and disabilities, and are able to correlate such requirements to accomplishing specific Clinical Objectives of Life Care Planning.
Standard 4: Quantification
Quantification describes the quantification of future medical requirements in a life care plans. When quantifying future medical requirements:
- Physician life care planners reference/exhibit all variables used to perform their calculations.
- Physician life care planners describe the methodology used to perform all calculations, so as to make their cost analyses independently replicable/disprovable.
- Physician life care planners quantify the total cost of the future medical requirements in their life care plans.
- Unless a physician life care planners is qualified as expert to formulate present value analyses, Certified Physician Life Care Planners formulate the total cost of subjects’ future medical requirements in nominal value, without accounting for inflation, discounts, or any other time value of money considerations.
- Physician life care planners, whenever possible/practicable cite and/or references all data sources from which they obtained cost data.