Determining the Cost of Care

One of the main issues that any parent of a child with brain injury or cerebral palsy will face is how to pay for care. We all know that medical care is very expensive. When you think about paying for emergency services and life support, long-term hospitalization and rehabilitation, long-term therapies and treatments, and medical equipment that the child might need, it can be extremely overwhelming. As a matter of fact, it can be so overwhelming that you might not want to deal with it at all. However, it’s important to deal with financial issues right from the start, so that you can determine how costs are going to be covered. If you don’t do this, your child might miss out on important therapies and treatments. Or, you may be responsible for paying for treatment that you can’t even begin to cover.

Begin by determining a ballpark figure on the cost of your child’s care. Because most insurance policies cover different percentages of the overall cost based on the type of service, break costs down by categories such as “emergency care,” “tests,” “rehabilitation,” “medicine,” “therapy,” and “medical equipment.” You can then determine whether your policies will cover the entire cost of your child’s care, or whether your child’s care will exceed limits. Why is this important? If your child’s care exceeds limits, you will need to explore other avenues of paying for it, such as government benefits or additional funding.

You don’t need to know how much services cost for this exercise. In most cases, all you need to do is visit the hospital’s financial department. Not only can these folks help you figure out the approximate cost of your child’s care, they can also help submit claims, deal with paperwork, and demystify any other insurance issues you may be facing.