Excerpted from SEAK’s course, “How to Start, Build, and Run a Successful Physician Life Care Planning Practice”
People paid for a medical service in a geographic area based on what providers in the area usually charge for the same or similar medical service is the usual customary and reasonable charge. That’s what we’re looking for to put in your life care plan. Researching medical charges is a vital part of the life care planning process. Cost estimates provided in the life care plan should be transparent and easily understandable. That’s what I was talking to you about just a few minutes ago, the cost estimates that you get put in one by one how you obtained it. You can go back easily on your own and say, “Okay. This is where I got it and this is, you know, how I averaged it to get the charges in the plan.” But it’s just good practice to have transparency and, you know, to show that, yes, this is how I got the cost and it’s very easy to understand. A lot of times people are using or copying and pasting the information into their research document for equipment to show what they are using for their cost, or if there’s any type of database information they are also doing the same thing so that they have the information right at hand and you don’t have to go back and find it.
Estimated costs should be obtained from reputable, reliable, and reasonable sources. And that’s what we talked about a few minutes ago. Don’t just use a source because they have the item you’re looking for. Make sure it’s a source that has been around and, you know, that is reputable and I’ve given you a list of some to start with in this particular program. Okay. Let’s start with physician charges. Many of you physicians in the audience and a lot of you don’t know what you charge because you’re doing the doctoring. You have office staff that is up and they are taking care of all the bills, the patients, the paperwork, and all that type of thing, and you don’t know exactly what you’re charging. So that’s why you need to have sources that can show you outside charges for your plan. All right. This is a sample, like your plan page, yours may look different, but I’ve just chosen this particular style so that we can talk about it.
Page one, these are the physicians that this patient is gonna need to see for the rest of their life. And so we’re going to take a look and decide how we’re gonna come up with cost. All right. So if you decide that you’re gonna make calls for this particular person or this particular specialty, go to Google. Google is my best friend. And I just usually put in orthopedic surgeon_Orlando, Florida and it comes up with a whole list. If calls are being made, make sure that the person that you’re looking at or the person that is being called actually does the type of surgery or treats the particular part of the body that you’re looking for. Many orthopedic surgeons only treat the spine. And if you have a knee case and you put in a spine orthopedic surgeon, I guarantee you it’s gonna be found. So just make sure a little bit of research is done, and you’re picking the particular position of choice that is best for your case.
