Certified Legal Nurse Consultant

Vickie, I just have to tell you about my recent exhibiting success. I started my Certified Legal Nurse Consultant business 5½ months ago after a long hiatus from nursing. I was fortunate to be able to work on my legal nurse consulting business full time and I made a concerted effort to use the marketing strategies I learned from the CLNC^® Certification Program. I got my first two cases on the same day within a week of my launch date just networking with friends. This networking brought me two attorneys and seven cases in the first three months.

To create immediate success for my legal nurse consulting business, I decided to exhibit at a statewide plaintiff attorney convention. I put to use the event marketing information in the Core Curriculum for Legal Nurse Consulting^® textbook, NACLNC^® Apprenticeship and Advanced CLNC^® Practice-Building Programs. I decided to spend the money to hire a graphic designer to create a professional tri-fold exhibit I could use repeatedly. I was thrilled with the final product and thanks to the information I received from Vickie Milazzo Institute, my exhibit booth looked attractive and professional.

I stood in front of my exhibit throughout the convention and introduced myself to most everyone who walked by. I passed out numerous business cards and brochures. I focused my conversations on how the attorneys were currently screening and developing their medical-related cases and how I could save them time and money. On the first day, I stayed until all attorneys and all but two exhibitors had left the exhibit hall. Ten minutes after returning to my hotel room, I got a call from an attorney-prospect who was waiting by my booth with medical records for me to review! Needless to say, I ran downstairs to meet with him. Believe it or not, I walked away from that convention with not one but two sets of medical records and retainers for both cases from that one attorney!

I received permission to follow up from every attorney with whom I spoke. I also gave free screenings to three attorneys who were particularly interested in my CLNC^® services. Two other attorneys asked me to call them after the convention to discuss a case on which they needed help. The day after I notified one attorney of his free screening, he called me to discuss a case he wanted me to handle. He needed help with several cases and wanted to get started. His firm handles a large number of malpractice and negligence cases so this opportunity really opened doors for my CLNC^® business.

I was surprised on the second day of the convention when one of the other two legal nurse consultant exhibitors shut down their booth (three RNs were exhibiting together). It was “tax-free shopping” that weekend so they closed their booth at 11:00am and went shopping! Needless to say, they had not attended the Vickie Milazzo Institute’s CLNC^® Certification Program. Since the convention was only 2½ days, they lost a huge opportunity to meet attorneys.

All in all, as a result of exhibiting at this one event I came home with the following:

• Two sets of medical records and retainer fees for each case from the same attorney.
• Requests from two attorneys to call regarding cases on which they need help.
• Request to screen a case for merit from a new attorney-client.
• Request to locate two testifying experts.
• Plus I received the attorney mailing list database from the association sponsoring the convention.

While exhibiting is not cheap nor easy, it definitely paid off for me. It gave my CLNC^® business statewide exposure and I will be hiring my first CLNC^® subcontractor to help with my rapidly increasing case load. I love my new career as a Certified Legal Nurse Consultant and look forward to many years of exhibiting success.

Laura H. Beard, RN, BSN, CLNC is president of LHB Medical-Legal Consulting located in South Carolina and specializes in medical malpractice, personal injury, workers’ compensation cases and Medicare Set-Aside Allocations.

To be a successful Certified Legal Nurse Consultant, you want to attain your optimal level of health.

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Success Is Inside!

One of my favorite things to do in Austin, Texas, other than eating at La Condesa, is walking the trail around Lady Bird Lake. It’s peaceful and relaxing being by the water. You get to see aquatic wildlife and, if you’re fast enough, sometimes you can catch a glimpse of a turtle or two sunning themselves on the bank. On our last trip, while walking the trail, Tom and I had a pretty good laugh over a warning sign we ran into on the trail, obviously put in place by a well-meaning worker from the City of Austin’s Public Works Department. It reads: SIDEWALK CLOSED, USE OTHER SIDE.

While the sign, does indeed seem to point out the obvious, it made me think about legal nurse consultants writing reports for attorney-clients. Whether you’re writing a brief or comprehensive report, you need to point out the obvious, salient points from the medical record for that attorney-client. This includes deviations from and adherences to the standard of care. As a Certified Legal Nurse Consultant, you’re the expert on the medical record and you are the one who must point out the obvious. The attorney is the expert on the law. While you may work with an attorney or two who knows enough about medicine to open a practice as a doctor (unlicensed), the majority of attorneys do not. Those attorney-clients depend upon you to tell them what they need to know about the treatment, injury and actions of the parties. This includes pointing out the obvious.

As a nurse, you have a tremendous amount of knowledge about nursing, medicine and just about every aspect of healthcare. This brings its own dangers. Sometimes incidents, deviations or lapses in care that are obvious to you in their effect on the case, won’t be obvious to your attorney-client. Certainly you need to write your legal nurse consulting reports to the skill level of each particular attorney-client, but, at the same time, you don’t want to overestimate their ability to see and understand the obvious. You can’t assume that the attorney will recognize the importance of a critical deviation if you give it the same weight as every other deviation you address in your report. What’s obviously important to you, may not be obvious or important to the attorney-client. If you don’t believe me, think of some of the obviously important things you point out to your spouse (“Honey, remember what happened last time you tried to rewire a lamp? I think you should unplug it first. Or Honey, don’t let the baby get too close to that alligator.”).

If something is obvious to you and importantly obvious to the case, point it out. Tell the attorney-client why it’s important. Don’t assume they’ll pick up on it themselves. Do this religiously and you just might keep them from getting soaked in court or in a lake.

Success Is Inside!

As a Certified Legal Nurse Consultant, I focus on helping hospitals reduce Medicare denials and win more Medicare Part A appeals. My photo and short bio on my websites generate four to five calls from hospital attorneys each month.

Hospitals want to be paid and I’ve learned that the first level of preventing Medicare denials is the assessment of the patient and the physician’s documentation of medical necessity. It’s usually the lack of this information that triggers a Medicare denial of payment.

The first rule to get the physicians to buy into what you are trying to teach them is to feed them. So, I contact the hospital administrators in question and explain that I have a plan that will help them reduce Medicare denials and change their doctors’ bad documentation habits. If lunch is not within the facility’s budget, then I work with ancillary vendors who might want to participate and provide lunch.

I use exhibit posters and flip charts to present during lunch (provided by the hospital). I also use a dry-marker board and include actual excerpts from Medicare’s denial documents. The exhibits show what was missing and how to correct it. My program includes hand-outs with the information from the posters, dry board and flip charts.

This educational approach usually works and I receive calls from physicians with questions for some time after each event. The marketing benefit is that people from different hospitals talk to one another, which often generates calls from other facilities wanting presentations and I get more clients.

My marketing strategies include:

• Bulletin board teasers with movie ad-like messages: “For Doctors: Coming soon to your hospital…” posted a couple weeks before the presentation.
• Hand-outs placed in facility mail boxes at least two weeks ahead of time.
• Posters on stands just inside the entrance to the presentation room at least 30 minutes before start time.
• Enlargements focused only on the most important pieces of Medicare rules on the subject that affects physicians.

One of the most rewarding experiences occurred while I was auditing a telephone conference regarding Medicare appeals with corporate attorneys for two of my hospital-clients. One hospital administrator on the call wondered why two facilities seemed to be doing much better than the others in overturning denials. The attorney explained, “That’s because they have a Camy,” as though I were a product brand name.

Another time a different hospital-client armed with the education and hand-outs I provided, was able to make enough immediate and lasting changes that they, effectively, stopped their denials cold. Most hospitals make changes slowly and with a lot of kicking and screaming. This hospital’s collective, firm resolve made the changes using the education they paid me to give them – and won big!

Medicare is my specialty and marketing, as I learned from Vickie Milazzo, is what sells my CLNC^® services.

Guest Blogger Profile

Camy Joyner, RN, BSN, CCM, CLNC, CEO and co-owner of C. Joyner and Associates, LLC. Consults/manages Medicare Part A appeals for acute general rehabilitation hospitals. Consults for records review/audit for physician medical pertinence. Also consults in non-Medicare negligence cases.

While I was pursuing my nursing degree in the late 90s, I was also working on my Spanish degree. Being from North Dakota where few people speak Spanish, Hispanic friends and colleagues often ask me how in the world I learned Spanish. I tell them I just fell in love with the language when I started taking Spanish in the 7th grade. I received my Spanish degree in 1998 and have been speaking Spanish since then.

I remembered what Vickie taught me in the CLNC^® Certification Program about using my unique selling position (USP). So, I started including the phrase, “I also have a degree in Spanish” in emails to attorney-prospects and paralegals. In one email to an attorney-prospect, I briefly told her about the services I offer as a Certified Legal Nurse Consultant and mentioned that I have a Spanish degree. A couple of weeks later, I received an email from a paralegal at that law firm asking if I could attend an independent medical examination (IME) for his Spanish speaking client. Two months later, I received a voicemail from another paralegal at the same law firm requesting my services at an IME for a different Hispanic client and a different attorney.

Each CLNC^® consultant brings something unique to the table. Like Vickie says, we are in the business of marketing. After attending both IMEs, I realized that I always need to market my USP of speaking Spanish. Marketing your USP will save a lot of time and energy. I kick myself now for not using my USP the first day I began marketing to attorneys.

Maybe your USP is speaking another language. Maybe it’s the fact that you have 25 years of nursing experience and you’ve worked in every area of the hospital. Maybe your nursing specialty is forensics. Whatever it is, every Certified Legal Nurse Consultant has a USP. The question is, are you marketing your USP to attorneys?

Guest Blogger Profile

Brian Brandser, RN, BSN, CCRN, CLNC assists attorneys with personal injury and medical malpractice cases. Brian also serves as clinical coordinator in a critical care unit at a Washington state hospital. Brian has a Spanish degree and lives with his wife and two boys.

When you communicate to attorneys, whether by speaking or writing, you can choose the response you want. That’s not a typo – I don’t mean your response, I mean the response from the attorney with whom you’re communicating. You can guide the response you’ll get by the words you choose.

For example, if you want to instantly get the attorney’s full attention, use signal words such as, “here’s how to,” “the opposing attorney will probably argue” or “this will almost certainly be an issue in the case.” Phrases like these alert the attorney that important information is about to follow.

Because your goal is to maintain an associative relationship with your attorney-clients, you will also want to use collegial phrases. For example saying, “let me share something I learned” is more collegial than “let me tell you about this.” Hearing these words, the attorney expects to benefit from, and possibly be enriched by what you are about to say, versus feeling they’re about to receive a lecture.

When explaining a medically complex situation, preface with, “this is how I would explain it to a jury” or “if I were explaining this to a jury, I would tell them….” This allows you to get down to the attorney’s level without insulting the attorney’s intelligence.

In addition to “sharing,” you can also use words that stimulate thought, inspire creativity and transform passivity into action. Think about famous persuaders such as Abraham Lincoln, Winston Churchill, John F. Kennedy and Martin Luther King. How did these orators persuade us to their way of thinking?

First of all, great persuaders sprinkle their speech liberally with “fat” words – freedom, love, success, judgment, loyalty, privilege, honor, generosity and together. Try putting any of those words in your CLNC^® tote bag. You can’t see them or touch them, but they sure feel good when you hear them. “Fat” words are empty of content but full of meaning. Take the word pride. You can’t hold pride in your hands. You can’t see it, hear it or taste it, yet it has exquisite meaning. Tell someone “I’m proud of you” and notice their immediate response. Think about these phrases:

“I value your judgment.”

“It’s a privilege to be here.”

“Working together we can…”

When Lincoln said, “Truth is generally the best vindication against slander,” he used three fat words in a total of eight. Look for opportunities to use fat words to inspire or persuade friends, family and associates, then turn your efforts to your attorney-prospects and clients. Notice the difference between “thanks for your time” and “I’m honored you took the time.” Even though both phrases work; they impact differently.

Great persuaders also use presuppositions such as fortunately, unfortunately and luckily. Such words, at the start of a statement, presuppose the next part of the statement to be factual. “Fortunately, you have the stronger position in this case” “Unfortunately, this fact hurts the case.” Another form of presupposition includes such words as odd, aware, know and realize. They presuppose a situation while at the same time embedding a suggestion.

“Are you aware that the medical expert missed an important issue?”

When talking with a prospective attorney-client always say “when” instead of “if,” “When I take a case for you I’ll be sure to…” or “When we’re working together….” Be positive and assume they’re already in a relationship with you and your legal nurse consulting business.

Another powerful use of words is the use of “linking words,” such as and, but, while and even. Linking words suggest cause and effect. Great persuaders use linking words to link verifiable experience with suggestion, making their ideas more believable, more readily accepted.

Most of us use linking words in a negative context. The two most commonly used linking words are and and but. By merely changing your unconscious use of those two words to a more conscious application, you’ll gain persuasion power. When you tell a subcontractor, “I love your work, but I don’t like how you go into too much detail,” the negative message is what is retained. “I don’t like how you go into too much detail” is what comes through loud and clear. “I love your work” goes unnoticed. It gets cancelled by the linking word but. When you change your language to use the linking word and instead of but, you send a different message – one more appropriate, “I love your work and I prefer that next time you avoid so much detail.” Your communication is less damaging and it still sends a constructive message.

Even more effective is linking two verifiable bits of information to a suggestion. This powerful technique takes more thought but is very effective. Here’s an example – “Fuji apples are red” – that’s verifiable, you can see it. “They crunch when you bite them” that’s verifiable too – you can hear them crunch. “And they taste wonderful.” In sales terms this is called a “yes set.” The first two yeses invite the third. Here’s another example – “It’s a beautiful sunny day outside” – verifiable, “that’s a great photo of your family” – verifiable “and as a Certified Legal Nurse Consultant I can save you time and money on your medical-related cases.” Try this technique with an attorney-prospect and see how many more clients you get.

These word power techniques can help you communicate more effectively for your Certified Legal Nurse Consultant business. Now that you’re aware of how persuasive you can be by incorporating fat words, presuppositions and selective linking words into your vocabulary, you’ll want to put them into action for your CLNC^® business. These word power techniques do require practice, so you’ll need to think about what you want to say in advance so that you cannot only practice, but also think up the most persuasive way of saying what you want well before you sit down to talk with an attorney-prospect. It also helps to evaluate an interview afterward and think of ways you would handle it differently next time. Practice using these techniques in your introductions and elevator speeches. You can even incorporate them into your introductory letters and promotional copy.

Practice word power today to reap improved results for your CLNC^® business.

Success Is Inside!

When I first started my legal nurse consulting business in 1982, I was nervous about contacting attorneys and marketing to them. The single most important thing that helped me overcome my fear, was remembering who I was – an RN. You know my mantra, “We Are Nurses and We Can Do Anything!^®” If we can make split second decisions that are the difference between life and death, we can do something as easy as talk to an attorney. We learned early on as nurses that doctors are not to be feared and we learned to talk (back) to them. Well, attorneys are the same. They put their super-suits on just like everyone else, one leg at a time. Talk with them; they’re fun. They have great senses of humor and they love life. Some of the most fun people I’ve met in my life are attorneys.

As I grew my legal nurse consulting business I focused on my strengths and successes, not my weaknesses and mistakes. I could write the book on just the mistakes I’ve personally made. Maybe you can too. Now though, there’s hard evidence that it’s our successes that have the most impact on the brain. If you do something the right way, the brain remembers how you did it.

In fact, the study suggests that failure has no impact on helping us to succeed. That’s because if you do something wrong, the brain doesn’t know how to process and store it. Since we absorb more from success than failure, this might explain why successful people learn more from their experiences and continue to succeed often while people who fail learn less from experience and continue to fail often. Think about the people around you. We all know someone who keeps making the same mistakes, in love, at work or in business – it’s because they’re not learning from their failures (unless there is a strong negative association with it such as pain, embarrassment or electrical shock). They fail to learn like they would from a success.

Keep succeeding and stay focused on your past successes. I’ve always said that reliving your past successes will fuel your future success and now research has proven me right.

If your brain doesn’t know how to process your failures, why should you bother? I say you shouldn’t.

Success Is Inside – and it’s repeatable!

One of the first tools any CLNC^® consultant needs is an accurate way to keep track of billable hours and create invoices for attorney-clients.

In the history of billing practices, the paper system was replaced by computers that are supplemented by personal data assistants (PDAs) and PC-based electronic solutions. Most electronic solutions had to be installed directly on the users’ PCs. The different computer-based solutions include Timeslips, Peachtree Complete and QuickBooks Pro, all of which survive today. Timeslips is a proven product and the most expensive of the three. Quickbooks is the least expensive, easiest to use and can handle most of your legal nurse consulting business’s accounting and banking needs as well as your billing and invoicing.

Now, new software is being created that is entirely web-based. For example, MakeSomeTime is totally web-based and allows free access once you register. It gives you the ability to log in, track your time and then create invoices from those logs. Because it’s free, it’s the most economical solution for new Certified Legal Nurse Consultants looking to minimize office start-up expenses. You can pay to upgrade for additional services but I suggest you try it free first.

In short, whatever billing application you choose, whether a free web-based application or a more robust PC-based service, make sure it works for you and your legal nurse consulting business. Also make sure you select one that can grow as your CLNC^® business grows.

Success Is Inside!

Certified Legal Nurse Consultant David Kuntz

During my career as an ICU nurse, I was always looking for ways to better myself. I took and passed the CCRN exam, but to my dismay I received no recognition from the hospital administrators for this accomplishment. I tried management and found that I was working more hours and getting paid less than the nurses on my unit. Then something happened that changed my career. I tore a ligament in my hand while restraining a patient. I could no longer lift anything over 25 pounds. I was devastated. My ICU nursing career was over. I spent one and half years on light duty and was told that I had to find a different job or the hospital would settle with me. After months of searching, I landed a job in IT as a clinical analyst.

At home after my surgery I had time on my hands, or in my case – hand, so I started to search for different ways to use my nursing knowledge. I came across legal nurse consulting on one of my searches. I spent hours researching legal nurse consulting. The spark was lit and grew with every bad day I had.

It took me five years until I finally decided to just go for it. I enrolled in the CLNC^® Certification Program in July 2009 and immediately started the home-study course. I finished it in a week and was certified the following weekend. I then worked on the NACLNC^® Apprenticeship Program. It took me a little over a week to finish and at that point, I started getting my promotional materials, sample work products and letters refined and ready to send to attorneys.

I started sending out material toward the end of August using all of the techniques I learned from Vickie. One goal that was foremost in my mind was to have a case before I attended the CLNC^® 6-Day Certification Program in October.

I was nervous before I made my first phone call to an attorney, but I kept remembering that they are people just like everyone else and that really calmed me down. In that first call, I introduced myself and gave a brief synopsis of the material I had already sent. I asked for an appointment and the attorney said, “Sure, come in at 4:00pm.”

Now I was really nervous. I looked over the sample interview questions in the online NACLNC^® Community and realized that I knew this information. I met with the attorney and the interview went so well, he is sending me a medical-malpractice case.

Two weeks later, I called another attorney to follow-up on my promotional material. He told me he didn’t receive it, so I presented a short version of how I could assist him. He asked me to set up a meeting with his secretary. The next day I went to his office and he walked into the conference room with a case in his hands and a check for $1,500.00. Inside I was doing cartwheels yet I remained composed until I got in my car and was heading home. The following day I talked with a different attorney and he wants to use me on two cases.

From the end of August to the first week in October, I was able to obtain three attorney-clients.

My first goal was met. I followed what Vickie taught and used her techniques. If everyone follows what they learn in the CLNC^® Certification Program, they will be successful in this business. Vickie and Vickie Milazzo Institute have already done the hard work; all a student has to do is apply what they learn from the CNLC^® Certification Program.

Guest Blogger Profile

David Kuntz, RN, BSN, CLNC has 17 years of nursing experience. He is the owner of David Kuntz and Associates in western New Mexico and specializes in medical malpractice.

I’ve stayed in a lot of hotels during my travels. Everything from Ramadas to Mandarin Orientals with more than a few Hiltons, Hyatts, Marriotts and the occasional Peninsula in between. As a result I’ve become quite jaded concerning hotel services. On a recent trip to Austin, Texas, I was stunned by the service at our hotel, the Four Seasons. The staff did much more than just meet requests, they seemed to anticipate every need. It started with the bellman who offered to find additional luggage stands. Then it was the waiter who, after I asked for the check and told him we needed to get to the airport, he offered to call a cab for us.

The front desk clerk who not only upgraded us to a lake view (without my asking) also suggested happy hour on the hotel’s terrace overlooking Lady Bird Lake and told us about a few of the appetizers we shouldn’t miss. The doorman surveyed the directions to our dinner spot (La Condesa – my favorite Mexican restaurant in the U.S.) and recommended a better, more direct route and even told us where to park. This service extravaganza ended with the valet who provided us with bottles of water for our drive to the airport.

From the time we arrived at the hotel to the time we left, it seemed the staff anticipated our every need and went out of their way to try and beat us to the punch. I couldn’t help but contrast this with so many other experiences where the staff simply wait until you ask them for help.

Are you doing the same for your attorney-clients? Are you anticipating their needs and offering different legal nurse consulting services than you’ve provided in the past or do you just sit passively by the phone or computer waiting for the call or email? The impression you want to leave with your attorney-clients is one of superior service and the best way to achieve that is by transcending your prior service.

As a Certified Legal Nurse Consultant, you know that you can provide more than 30 different CLNC^® services to your attorney-clients. Offer them! Don’t wait for the attorney to ask you. He hasn’t seen the list and doesn’t know the full range of your nursing knowledge and experience. Show him how you can stand out by anticipating his needs, not just meeting them.

Success Is Inside!