Enriching lives through guidance, advocacy and care…..

 

Is what the dedicated professionals of Lifecare Innovations do each and every day. Our professional staff delivers a myriad of services designed to handle just about any challenge an individual may be presented with. No matter how big or how small, our staff make the complex simple by untangling every aspect of an individual’s challenges, identifying solutions, facilitating resources and implementing therapeutic interventions for the maximum of quality of life and independence regardless of a person’s age or disability status.

Lifecare Innovations, unique in its vision and mission, submits that Lifecare Management is not limited in scope or boundary by age or relation of person in need. In fact, Lifecare Innovations works with individual’s spanning across age from birth to death, and beyond. Our work is done with and for individuals, family members, and/or related professionals including Attorneys and Trust Professionals. While other organizations are vested in single areas of practice, such as Geriatrics, Lifecare Innovations employs professionals in the areas of Nursing, Social Work, Psychology, Forensic Psychology and other related fields who have diverse backgrounds to expertly handle any number of situations and needs including but not limited to benefits, daily checkbook management, management of catastrophic illnesses, job coaching, life complications as a result of chronic or debilitating psychiatric symptoms, developmental disability, personal injury, age related frailty and life transitions. Given our vast experience and varied professional backgrounds, we are additionally able to manage complex needs across many cultural backgrounds with fluency in Spanish, Polish, Czech, German, and Slovak languages.

The Lifecare planning process involves assessing and coordination of a variety of resources in order to master and maintain independence and to improve quality of life for as long as possible. In most cases, a care plan tailored for each individual’s circumstances is prepared after a comprehensive assessment. The care plan is fluid, being modified as needed based on the effectiveness of its components and the resulting outcomes desired. Our Lifecare Managers accomplish this through working knowledge of public and private resources and funding sources while advocating for clients throughout the continuum of care. In some specialty and complex cases involving catastrophic or long term care needs, a Life Care Plan is one of the key tools utilized in advocating and planning for clients. In other challenging situations, Guardianship may be called for due to issues related to decisional capacity combined with a lack of other available social supports. Beyond a person’s active life, is the management and distribution of a person’s beloved personal property and possessions in which Lifecare Home Solutions can help guide family and/or other professionals through the process of valuation, dissemination and wrapping up of remaining estate issues.

An individual’s needs may be seemingly simple however, when ready solutions and available support is not enough, leaving an individual continually at risk, Lifecare Management services may be indicated. Following are some indicators that Lifecare Innovations may be able to assist in the care of your client or loved one:

The individual can’t remember what the doctor said and so is unable to follow the advice.

The individual “mixes up” their medications, such as running out of medications, taking too much medication, filling prescriptions at multiple pharmacies, continuing to take discontinued or expired medications, etc.

The individual calls you several times a day going over the same issues not being able to remember or execute your instructions.

The individual “forgets” to pay their bills and the phone and utilities get turned off.

The individual does not file their tax returns or pay their property taxes placing their estate, typically a person’s largest asset, at risk.

The individual repeatedly and frequently donates to charities and is vulnerable to mail and phone solicitors.

The individual has “friends” that start gaining too much information about their finances. 

The individual starts signing up for unneeded services such as credit card insurance, excessive lawn service, etc.

The individual has a medical crisis that threatens their independence i.e., broken hip.

You suspect the individual is not eating correctly.

The individual needs a health care treatment, service, or a piece of equipment and your insurance company denies the request.

The individual does not understand their medical bills and needs someone to determine who is responsible, the individual, the insurance company, or the medical provider.  Who owes what to whom?

A provider is not providing you with the service you contracted them for.

The problems that you or your loved ones are facing becoming larger and more complex than you can comfortably manage?

Are other demands and responsibilities so great that you are not able to provide the desired level of supervision and attention to your loved one’s problems?

History:

 

Lifecare Innovations, Inc. (LCI) was incorporated in 1995 in Connecticut. In 1999 the founder launched the Lifecare Management arm of the company that serves the greater Chicagoland area. Since 1995, Lifecare Innovations has earned a reputation as a business that can handle any problem. The founder, Shay Jacobson RN, MA has utilized her education, experiences and business acumen to build the premier Lifecare advisory company in the field.  The company has overcome obstacles – opening its doors at the onset of an economic recession and offering services that are entirely private pay – to achieve unparalleled success. The company is the American success story – it leverages individuals’ professional experience and drive to create a value-added product that benefits the community and, at the same time, is a flourishing business.

Lifecare Innovations, since inception, has focused on the most complex cases that challenge family systems, the community, trust officers and attorneys involving complex medical issues, age related frailties, mental illness and complex family dynamics, special needs planning for children and adults, personal injury and workman’s compensation, and those facing criminal charges due to mental illness. In so doing, the company has remained responsive to the market place focusing on unmet needs and challenges that disability and frailty cause which are poorly met by present day systems.

The company incorporated three separate but related companies (Lifecare Innovations, Lifecare Guardianship and Lifecare Home Solutions) to meet the needs of our growing client population, to minimize risk to the client and their support systems and to provide a scope of services to address the needs of these clients. Each of these companies follows strict internal guidelines to assure the dignities and privacy of the clients that they serve.

 Our continuing mission to serve others allows us to remain client centered and market driven. We boast an unwitting goal for furthering the education and strength of its employees and the community by prolific, and complimentary, speaking engagements on a variety of topics.

Staff:

 

Lifecare Innovations has the largest complement of professional staff of any Care Management company in the country.  Our clinical staff is comprised of nurses, social workers and psychology professionals with advanced degrees and a plethora of experience with the frail elderly, those impacted by mental illness or debilitating personality disorders, developmental disabilities and personal injuries.  Given a vast degree of expertise and wide ranging professional backgrounds, we are able to service clients from many ethnic backgrounds through combined expertise and bilingual abilities of many of our clinical staff. We have fluency in languages including Spanish, Polish, Czech, Slovak and German as well as passive understanding of spoken and written Russian and other Slovak languages. Lifecare Innovations’ professional clinical expertise is complemented by the staff of our related companies, Lifecare Home Solutions and Lifecare Guardianship.

Awards and Company Memberships:

 

Our clinical staff holds memberships in professional national and local associations including the National Association of Social Workers, the American Psychological Association, The National Association of Professional Geriatric Care Managers and the National Guardianship Association. Additionally the company is active in a variety of other professional and community groups including:

The Better Business Bureau

Membership and faculty status with The Illinois Institute for Continuing Legal Education (IICLE) including:

The IICLE Advisory Committee for Eldercare

Faculty with University of Illinois Non-Physician Geriatric Certificate Program

Board Membership and Editor of Elder Care Matters

Member of Association of Senior Service Providers for DuPage County

DuPage Estate Planning Council

Will County Estate Planning Council

Illinois Guardianship Association

National Guardianship Association

Lake County Bar Association

National Private Duty Association

Board Membership with Northeast Area Agency on Aging

Lifecare Innovations is a proud A+ rated member of the Better Business Bureau of Chicago. The Better Business Bureau of Northern Illinois awarded Lifecare Innovations the Torch Award for Marketplace Ethics in 2008 for our stellar business practices and was subsequently invited to submit an entry for the 2010 International Better Business Bureau Torch Award.

Shay Jacobson, our founder and President is a recipient of one of the “2005 Influential Women in Business” by the Business Ledger in partnership with the National Association of Women Business Owners. She continues be honored by requests for Community Education including innumerous requests for keynote addresses by both attorney and trust groups. Additionally, Lifecare Innovations has been sought out for publication of several articles in Illinois Institute for Continuing Legal Education’s most recent publication for its attorney members.

Health Care Power of Attorney:

 

In Lifecare Innovation’s professional consultative role, we are able to be named as Health Care Power of Attorney and/or Power of Attorney for Property in order to assist in managing and directing current and future needs. Many individuals and couples have pre-named Lifecare Innovations in these capacities as a part of their estate planning process. In so doing, these individuals, who otherwise would have no available, capable, willing or appropriate decision maker have gained peace of mind that their affairs will be handled expediently and professionally should the need arise. Lifecare Innovations encourages consultation with one of their professional representatives to review this process and requires an attorney draft the official Power of Attorney documents in order to accept this honored agency.

Special Services:

 

Lifecare Innovations has coined the term “special services” for the management of those additional nagging items that require particularly special attention from an administrative eye. Our special services duties include managing items such as monthly bill payment, checkbook management, local and federal entitlement applications, Medicare Part D enrollment, long term care insurance review and claims submission and the like. Our skilled professionals proficiently and efficiently handle the following issues alone or in conjunction with active clinical Lifecare Management, Guardianship or Lifecare Home Solutions services.

Medical bill management, which encompasses review of all medical bills, follow up with insurance claims and identification of appropriate patient portions due;

Checkbook management and/or establishment of an escrow account from which all client bills can be monitored and paid;

Development of a customized Medicare D profile and enrollment in the plan that delivers the most medications at the lowest cost for each individual user;

Evaluation of existing private insurance coverage and recommendations for improved coverage;

Negotiation of medical expenses and/or hospital charges not covered by insurance;

Submission of medical and long-term care insurance claims, including document gathering and ongoing follow up;

Completion of lengthy Public Aid applications and coordination of the document gathering process;

Assistance with applications for social security disability (SSDI) and Illinois special insurance programs such as I-CHIP and KID CARE.

Marshalling of assets for complicated estate or guardianship cases.