Practice Challenges Identified by Life Care Planners in the United States

A survey was conducted in October 2017 to identify current issues and needs faced by life care planners practicing in the United States. Life care planning practitioners were asked to identify the three biggest practice challenges they faced in their practice in the past 12 months. Data were analyzed using NVivo 11 to identify eight essential themes among the participants. These themes were: (1) collaboration for recommendations (2) business challenges 1. (3) evolution of field of life care planning (4) referral constraints (5) attorney concerns (6) future care costs (7) case development and (8) legal proceedings. The authors further explore these themes and discuss the implications of each for life care planners. The findings of this research are contrasted to the survey data collected of Canadian life care planners in April 2017.