Glossary: life care planning and AI terms
Short version: 22 terms used on this site, defined in plain words, with a note on where AI touches each one. Terms link here from every page the first time they appear.
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.
Plan and credential terms
- Life care plan
- A document that projects the medical and support needs of a person with a catastrophic injury or chronic condition over their lifetime, with the cost of each item. Used in litigation, case management and settlement. AI can help with the record review behind it; the plan is the planner's opinion.
- CLCP
- Certified Life Care Planner, a credential from the International Commission on Health Care Certification. Physician and nurse planners often hold it.
- CNLCP
- Certified Nurse Life Care Planner, a nursing-specific life care planning credential.
- Evaluee
- The person the plan is written for. Planners interview the evaluee, and often family, as part of the plan; no AI tool does that part.
- Medical cost projection
- A narrower estimate of future medical costs, often from records review alone and used for reserves or settlement. Shorter than a life care plan and usually without an interview.
- Medicare set-aside (WCMSA)
- An allocation of settlement money for future injury-related care that Medicare would otherwise pay, priced on Medicare fee schedules. Its cost basis differs from a typical life care plan's.
Inclusion and evidence terms
- More probable than not
- The usual inclusion standard for a plan item: the need is more likely than not to occur. Items that only "may" occur are possible and are usually left out of the costed total.
- Future care table
- The table of plan items with frequency, start, stop or replacement interval, unit cost and source. AI can draft rows from the record; the inclusion decision and costs are the planner's. Template.
- Replacement interval
- How often an item such as a prosthesis, wheelchair or orthosis is replaced. Rarely stated in notes; usually from the prescriber, the manufacturer, the literature or the planner's experience.
- Page citation
- A reference from a fact in a summary or table to the page of the record that supports it. The feature that separates usable AI record tools from risky ones.
- Deduplication
- Removing exact duplicate pages from a file. Matters for cost (some tools bill duplicates) and for accuracy (the same recommendation counted twice).
- Rule 702
- Federal Rule of Evidence 702, on expert testimony: the opinion must rest on sufficient facts and a reliable method reliably applied. Many states have a similar rule. AI use doesn't change the test; it adds questions about method.
Cost terms
- UCR
- Usual, customary and reasonable charges: what providers in an area typically charge for a service. The common cost basis in life care plans.
- FAIR Health
- A nonprofit that licenses charge and allowed-amount benchmarks by procedure code and geographic area. Its own article says life care planners mostly use the charge benchmarks.
- CPT
- Current Procedural Terminology, the code set for physician and outpatient services. Fee data is looked up by CPT code.
- HCPCS
- Healthcare Common Procedure Coding System. Level II codes cover equipment, supplies, prosthetics and drugs not in CPT.
- Life expectancy
- The expected remaining years of life, which sets the plan's horizon. Comes from a physician's opinion or a published table such as the CDC's United States Life Tables; never from a model's guess.
- Present value
- What a stream of future costs is worth today, after growing costs and discounting them back. Calculator with formula.
- Net discount rate
- (1 + discount rate) ÷ (1 + growth rate) minus 1. At 4.5% discount and 3% growth it is 1.456%. When it is 0, present value equals the undiscounted total.
- Forensic economist
- The expert who usually converts a plan's today's-dollar costs into present value, choosing growth and discount rates.
Privacy terms
- PHI
- Protected health information under HIPAA. Medical records in a plan are PHI.
- BAA
- Business Associate Agreement: the contract under which a vendor may handle PHI for a covered entity or its business associate. Get 1 signed before uploading records to any AI tool, and check it covers the plan you use.