CLCP in Massachusetts

A certification. The International Commission on Health Care Certification (ICHCC) awards it to candidates who are licensed, certified or otherwise permitted by state law to practice a health care profession (a master's degree in a related health care field can stand in for a prior certification); that profession, not the CLCP, determines whether the holder may practice in it. The standards of practice for life care planners describe life care planning as a specialty practice over which a planner's own profession does not typically exercise authority, so counsel confirms the CLCP and the underlying license separately. The life care plan guide explains who prepares a plan and what it contains.

Ask for the certificate, which carries the expiration date the holder must renew by, and search ICHCC's public CLCP Listing by name or keyword, city, state, zip code or certificate number. Holders add and change their own entries after signing in, so an entry is not the commission's confirmation that the CLCP is current, and a missing name does not show a lapse. For a formal answer, counsel submits the commission's Certification Verification Form, and the commission replies with whether the person is certified, the certification and renewal dates, and any finding of a professional conduct or ethics violation with the principle violated. How to Evaluate an Opposing Life Care Plan covers the checks that come next, on the plan itself.

Not under the federal rule on expert testimony, which lets a witness qualify as an expert through knowledge, skill, experience, training or education; under it and the state rules that follow it, the court weighs the CLCP alongside the planner's license and planning experience and then tests the plan's foundation. What the certification adds, in ICHCC's terms, is consumer protection: by obtaining it the holder agrees to peer review, to research-based practice standards and ethical guidelines, and to discipline by the commission's board on a finding of inappropriate practice. Counsel also confirms whether the forum sets its own qualifications for a witness on future care.

Every five years. The certificant documents 80 continuing education units earned during the certification period, at least 8 of them in ethics and the rest in life care planning topics or the certificant's area of expertise, or renews by re-examination, an option ICHCC closes once the credential has expired. A certificant short of the 80 units who has completed and submitted 15 of them may apply for an extension of up to six months, and failing to renew by the expiration date on the certificate ends the holder's certified status.