Household services analysis applied to medical malpractice litigation: methodology, deliverables, and case-specific considerations.
In a medical malpractice claim the household services loss is measured against the outcome the patient would have had with proper care. The economist takes the causation and prognosis opinions as the baseline for what the patient could have done at home, measures the hours the injury removed by category from the household's account and time-use data, and values them at the local replacement wage over the period the medical evidence supports. Where the underlying condition would have limited household work on its own, only the incremental loss is valued, and the report shows the result under each apportionment opinion in the record.
Replacement-cost valuation of the household production an injured or deceased person can no longer provide: meal preparation, cleaning, home and vehicle maintenance, shopping, child care, and care of other household members. The hours are drawn from national time-use data adjusted to the person's household composition and pre-injury role, and each category is priced at the local wage for the occupation that would replace it, then projected and discounted over the period of loss.
The claim consists of lost earnings and earning capacity attributable to the injury, lost fringe benefits, the replacement cost of household services the patient can no longer perform, the present value of the incremental future care documented in a life care plan or the treating recommendations, and, where the patient has died, the survivor and estate components of a wrongful death analysis. The records that drive the analysis are the earnings and benefit history, the medical opinions that separate the injury from the underlying condition, and the care plan that distinguishes incremental care from the care the underlying condition would have required.
We issue the final report and provide deposition and trial testimony and rebuttal of opposing household services opinions.
From the medical opinions that describe what the patient could have done with proper care. The economist values only the hours the injury removed beyond that baseline and states the apportionment applied, showing the result under each opinion when the physicians disagree.
It becomes the household services component of the wrongful death analysis: the services the decedent would have provided to the household over the period the survivors would have received them, valued at replacement cost and discounted to present value.
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