The cost of traumatic brain injury (TBI) for patients can have an impact on the types of treatments patients are able to access. As a solution to this problem, medical crowdfunding provides a quick and easy way for patients and their families to pay for treatment that they would otherwise been able to access.
Statistics of Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI) in Australia
Brain Injuries are known to be one of the main causes that may lead to death both in adults and children ranging from the age of 1 to 44. Although there are many different reasons that may lead to brain injuries, some of the most common known reasons include car accidents, injuries inflicted due to sports, or simply because of a fall either at work, home or at a playground. In particular, traumatic brain injury is caused mostly by a fall. This has been found over two out of five Australians who suffer from traumatic brain injury.
Over 700,000 individuals within Australia have a brain injury, 22,000 of which suffered from a traumatic brain injury. The Australian Bureau of Statistics and Brain Injury Australia found that “nearly one in three was due to a motor vehicle accident, and one in six was caused by an assault.”
Guide to Traumatic Brain injury (TBI) Costs
It is extremely important that anyone who has suffered a brain injury should get immediate medical attention. There are different levels of brain injuries from a concussion to severe injuries. It is therefore extremely important to get the right kind of diagnosis and treatment that is required to help in minimizing the damage done to the brain. These treatments may vary according to the level of injury and may include a CT scan or an MRI.
But no matter how serious the injury might be, all brain injury patients would definitely benefit from rehabilitation in the long run. This may include physical therapy, occupational therapy, speech therapy and psychological therapy. The price for each type of treatment may also vary depending on the type of therapies and the type of injuries. The different types of costs that a brain injury patient may have to face include:
• Medical costs: Medical costs which include hospital bills, the cost on the use of technologies which may help in the treatment of the brain injury, bills for nurses, physicians and therapists, the cost on medication and many other expenses that are not usually covered by insurance.
• Loss of Income: Loss of income may also be counted as another cost during a brain injury, since there is the likely chance that during treatment there would be a temporary absence from work. In addition, due to the injury the patient may not be able to work on their full capacity which too may affect their wages.
• Special treatment and care costs: The cost on different kinds of therapies that may be needed by the patient.
• Long Term costs: Finally many other different long term costs such as the cost for caregivers and other types of long term facilities. Another major cost that brain injury patients have to endure is the cost for medication that is required by the brain injury patient. For many, these costs may reach up to between $600,000 and $1800000 over the course of the treatment.
How to pay for Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI) Costs with Medical Crowdfunding
There is a high likely chance that most patients suffering from a brain injury across the US are not able to afford the cost for their treatment especially in the long run, as on an average the cost of a simply brain injury may go up to $85000 while a severe case may even reach $3 million. Some of the costs are covered by insurance while others are not, and there are also those patients who are not able to afford insurance at all.
For such individuals there are many other ways to financially assist them during a brain injury treatment. One such popular way is through medical crowdfunding.
The purpose of crowdfunding in terms for brain injury patients is that it is able to help support brain injury patients with their recovery process by helping them raise funds both online and as well as through their community.
There are many ways a brain injury patient is able to benefit through crowdfunding which includes the following:
• It helps promote the individual’s financial and medical situation to the masses
With the help of crowdfunding, brain injury patients are able to advertise both their medical as well as financial situation to a lot more people in a much lesser time period. In this manner patients are able to raise fund much faster and more easily compared to many other traditional ways.
Supporters are also able to donate instantly without the need to wait for a specific period of time.
• More people are influenced through social media
One of the most important factors that medical crowdfunding relies on is the use of different social networks. This way the patient is not only able to get financial help from friends and family but also from their friends and families’ own personal contact list. If a brain injury patient has a personal Facebook, Twitter or other social networking account, they can easily spread the word about their medical fundraising to a huge crowd within seconds.
• Providing secure donations
Different kinds of medical crowdfunding websites have their own built-in payment systems to help make it easier for the patient or their families to manage and run the campaign. Unlike offline fundraising where donations needs to be made with a check, medical crowdfunding uses email notifications which are sent to the organizer of the fundraising for every donation sent. This way traumatic brain injury (TBI) patient and their family are able to receive timely funds for their treatment without any kind of complication.
References:
1. Medical Crowdfunding: http://peoplepledge.com.au/blog/medical-crowdfunding/
2. Living with Brain Injury Costs of Care: http://www.braininjuryinstitute.org/Living-With-Brain-Injury/Costs-Of-Care.html
3. Traumatic Brain Injury: http://www.cdc.gov/traumaticbraininjury/tbi_ed.html
4. Traumatic Brain Injury Statistics: http://www.braininjuryaustralia.org.au/acquired-brain-injury/