Future care tables: a template, and what AI can fill
Answer in brief: a future care table has 1 row per item with its basis, frequency, start and stop, replacement interval, unit cost and cost source. AI can fill the record-derived columns (item, provider, frequency, duration, page). The inclusion decision, the unit cost and its source, and the age range stay with the planner. Copy the template below.
Limits: Tool facts come from each vendor's own website, read on 2026-11-12; we did not test any product hands-on. The cost example is synthetic, and the rates in it are placeholders, not recommended growth or discount rates.
What goes in a future care table
The table is the part of a life care plan that turns care into dollars. Each row answers 5 questions: what the evaluee needs, why you included it, how often, for how long, and what it costs where they live. Anyone who later reads the plan, including opposing counsel's planner, will try to break a row on 1 of those 5.
Plans group rows into categories. The labels vary by planner and practice, but most plans include these groups:
- Physician and therapy evaluations and follow-up visits
- Therapy: physical, occupational, speech, psychological
- Diagnostic tests and imaging
- Medications and supplies
- Mobility, prosthetics, orthotics and durable medical equipment, with replacement schedules
- Home care, attendant care or facility care
- Home modifications and transportation
- Future surgery and treatment of expected complications
Which columns AI can fill and which stay yours
| Column | Who fills it | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Item and category | AI drafts, you edit | Comes straight from the recommendation |
| Recommending provider, date | AI | Record fact, cited |
| Source page | AI, you verify | The citation you defend |
| Frequency per year | AI drafts, you confirm | Often stated in the note; often vague |
| Duration or replacement interval | AI drafts if stated; otherwise you | Notes rarely state lifetime replacement; that comes from literature, vendors and experience |
| Inclusion basis | You only | Probable versus possible is your opinion |
| Start and stop age | You only | Depends on life expectancy and the course of the condition |
| Unit cost and cost source | You, from a cited dataset or quote | A model's price guess has no source or geography |
| Annual and lifetime cost | Formula | Arithmetic, never typed in |
The template: copy it into a spreadsheet
14 columns, tab-separated, so it pastes cleanly into Excel, Google Sheets or Numbers. The 2 example rows come from our synthetic worked example; delete them before use.
Category Item Provider and date Source page Inclusion basis Probable? (Y/N, why) Start year Stop year Units per occurrence Every N years Unit cost (today's $) Cost source, edition, area Annual equivalent Lifetime total Evaluations Physiatry follow-up Physiatrist, 2026-03-04 412 Treating provider recommendation Y, stated as ongoing 1 40 2 1 250 [your source] =I2*K2/J2 =I2*K2*(FLOOR((H2-G2)/J2,1)+1) Prosthetics Below-knee prosthesis replacement Prosthetist, 2026-02-11 388 Treating provider plus literature Y, interval per prosthetist 4 40 1 4 18000 [your source] =I3*K3/J3 =I3*K3*(FLOOR((H3-G3)/J3,1)+1)
The lifetime formula counts the occurrences from start year to stop year at the chosen interval, then multiplies by units and unit cost. For the prosthesis row: years 4, 8, 12 and so on to 40 is 10 replacements, so 10 times $18,000 is $180,000. The annual equivalent ($4,500) is for display only; lifetime totals should come from the occurrence count, because a 4-year item bought in year 4 and year 40 is not the same as $4,500 a year from year 1.
3 columns most tables lack
- Inclusion basis. 1 line saying why the row exists: treating provider recommendation, your clinical opinion with literature, or standard of care for the condition. When the basis is your own opinion, say so.
- Cost source with edition and area. "FAIR Health" is not a source; the benchmark module, percentile, release and geographic area are. The same goes for vendor quotes: who, when, which model.
- Source page. Kept even after the plan is final. It turns a deposition question about a row into a 10-second answer.
How AI helps you build the table faster
- Run the extraction prompts from the record review page and export the results as rows.
- Paste them into the template. Each AI row arrives with item, provider, date, page, frequency and, sometimes, duration.
- Delete rows that are possibilities, superseded orders or patient wishes. Mark each remaining row's inclusion basis.
- Add rows the record can't give you: items from your interview, your home visit and your calls with the treating team.
- Fill start and stop years, unit costs and cost sources yourself. The formulas do the rest.
Step 4 matters. A table built only from the record misses what was never charted: the evaluee's home, the spouse doing transfers, the van that doesn't fit a power chair. No record tool can find those.
Questions about future care tables
Should possible items appear in a future care table?
Not in the costed totals. Many planners note possible items separately, uncosted or costed apart, so the reader sees them without counting them in the plan's total.
Can AI set replacement intervals?
Only when a note states one. Otherwise the interval comes from the manufacturer, the prescribing provider, the literature or your experience, and you should cite which.
Why compute lifetime cost from occurrences rather than annual cost times years?
Because periodic items don't start in year 1. Annual cost times years overstates a prosthesis first replaced in year 4 and misplaces every purchase in time, which also skews the present value.