FAIR Health Data Help Life Care Planners
September 17, 2020
Life care planners evaluate the needs created by an individual’s disability or chronic health condition, and develop plans that forecast the items and services required to meet those needs in the future, along with the corresponding costs. These plans are used in cases where there are likely to be significant future medical costs over a long period of time, to aid in quantifying medical damages. FAIR Health data help life care planners to estimate those costs.
To do their work, life care planners use the complete suite of FH® Benchmarks, including medical, dental, anesthesia, inpatient, outpatient and HCPCS services. Non-discounted, billed charges, as provided by FH® Charge Benchmarks, are predominantly used by life care planners, but in some states and jurisdictions there is growing interest in using allowed amounts, for which FAIR Health’s library of FH® Allowed Benchmarks provides estimates.
Life care planners use FAIR Health data because the data are independent, robust, geographically specific, representative and comprehensive. The data come from a long-established, unbiased nonprofit organization with the nation’s largest repository of private healthcare claims, currently comprising over 32 billion claim records from across the country and growing by over 2 billion claim records per year. The data are accessed easily and conveniently through FAIR Health’s web-based tool, FH® Online, and the benchmarks are refreshed twice yearly, keeping them current.
FAIR Health is dedicated to making its data available for use by all stakeholders, including the life care planning community. Life care planners use FAIR Health data to create a customized healthcare cost profile as part of a life care plan, and to update the plan when a client’s healthcare needs change. If there is a legal challenge or government inquiry involving questions about FAIR Health or its data products, FAIR Health can provide research and analytical support services.
FAIR Health President Robin Gelburd commented: “Life care planners rely on data to do their work and FAIR Health is the gold standard in that regard. We will continue to serve them as an independent source of robust, reliable, up-to-date healthcare data.”
For more information on how FAIR Health data can help life care planners, contact FAIR Health by email at info@fairhealth.org or call 855-301-3247, Monday through Friday, 9 am to 6 pm ET.