Long Term Care Costs After a Brain Injury
The hospital bill is the part everyone sees. In a serious brain injury it is rarely the largest part of the loss, and future costs have to be proved rather than estimated.
- 138Google reviews
- 3Attorneys on your case
- 2 yrsTexas filing deadline
- No feeUnless we win
Why the immediate bill understates the loss
Acute treatment stabilizes the injury. What follows can run for years: cognitive and occupational rehabilitation, speech and language therapy, neuropsychological review, psychiatric care for mood and behavioral change, and medication management.
Beyond clinical care sit the costs that are easy to overlook. Supervision or attendant care where a person cannot safely be left alone. Home modification. Transport where driving is no longer safe. Case management to coordinate providers. These are real expenses and they are recoverable, but only where they are documented.
What a life care plan does
A life care planner is a clinician who sets out, item by item, what care a person will need across their remaining life expectancy: the service, its frequency, its duration and its current cost.
This converts an argument into a schedule. Without it, future care is asserted and disputed. With it, the defense has to engage with specific items rather than the general proposition that future costs are speculative.
Present value, and why the number shrinks
Future costs are awarded as a lump sum today, so an economist reduces them to present value: the sum that, invested now, would fund the future expenses. The discount rate applied has a large effect over a long life expectancy, and it is routinely contested.
The same analysis applies to lost earning capacity, which in a serious brain injury case is frequently the single largest element of the claim.
Lost earning capacity is not lost wages
Lost wages are what you did not earn while recovering, and they are straightforward to document. Lost earning capacity is the reduction in what you are now able to earn across your working life.
A person who returns to work at the same salary may still have suffered a substantial loss of capacity if they can no longer progress, take on complex responsibility, or sustain full time hours. A vocational expert establishes what work remains realistic, and an economist values the difference.
The care families provide without being paid
Family members frequently supply supervision, prompting, transport and personal care that would otherwise be purchased. That care has a value, and it can form part of the claim. Keeping a contemporaneous record of hours and tasks from early on is far more reliable than reconstructing it later.
Why settling early is the risk
A settlement is final. Where it happens before the treating clinicians can say whether deficits are permanent, the figure necessarily assumes recovery that may not occur. In a brain injury case the medical picture usually takes many months to stabilize, and that timing, rather than the legal deadline, is what should drive when a claim resolves.
Summary
| Category | Examples | How it is proved |
|---|---|---|
| Acute care | Hospital, surgery, imaging | Billing records |
| Rehabilitation | Cognitive, occupational, speech and language therapy | Treatment records, treating provider testimony |
| Ongoing clinical care | Neurology, psychiatry, medication management | Life care plan |
| Attendant care and supervision | Paid carers, or family care that replaces them | Life care plan, contemporaneous family records |
| Home and vehicle modification | Accessibility and safety adaptation | Life care plan, contractor assessment |
| Lost earning capacity | Reduced ability to earn across a working life | Vocational expert, economist |
| Non-economic loss | Pain, mental anguish, physical impairment | Testimony, medical records |
Keep reading
Texas Traumatic Brain Injury Lawyer
A traumatic brain injury is the injury most often missed at the emergency room and most often disputed afterwards.
Practice areaConcussion or Traumatic Brain Injury
There is no difference in kind. A concussion is a traumatic brain injury.
ReadTexas Brain Injury Law
A brain injury claim runs on the same Texas negligence framework as any injury case, but three features...
ReadBrain Injury Settlements
Brain injury claims have the widest value range of any injury type, from modest to life-changing...
ReadMedical Malpractice Brain Injury
Some brain injuries are caused by the medical care meant to help, an oxygen-deprivation injury during surgery, a missed stroke, a birth injury.
ReadDeadline to File a Brain Injury Claim
Two years for most claims, but three things can change that, and one of them, the medical cause...
Read
Frequently asked questions
Because future costs are awarded as a lump sum today. A life care planner sets out what care will be needed and at what frequency, and an economist reduces it to present value. Without that work, future care is asserted rather than proved and is easily disputed.
Lost wages are what you did not earn while recovering. Lost earning capacity is the reduction in what you are able to earn across your working life. Someone can return to the same salary and still have lost capacity if they can no longer progress or sustain full time work.
It can form part of the claim. Care that family members provide in place of paid support has a value, and keeping a contemporaneous record of hours and tasks from early on is far more reliable than reconstructing it later.
Generally not. A settlement is final, and settling before clinicians can say whether deficits are permanent means the figure assumes a recovery that may not happen. In brain injury cases the medical picture usually takes many months to stabilize.
Talk it through with a lawyer
A free consultation covers whether you have a claim, what the deadline is, and what insurance is actually available.
Contingency fee. You pay nothing unless we win.