Recently my husband and I had dinner with my father at one of my favorite Italian restaurants. After an animated discussion with the waiter, my dad ordered a pasta dish that wasn't on the menu, telling the waiter exactly what he wanted in it. My father has always been a picky eater, so this is normal behavior for him.
When the food came, it was presented beautifully and prepared exactly as he had requested. Bits of scallion, garlic and peppered chicken glistened over a serving of fettuccine, all mixed with a light tomato, basil and olive oil sauce and topped by chunks of ripe, red tomato lightly dusted with Parmesan cheese. The dish looked so good, I wanted it instead of my own.
I expected my father to be delighted with his meal. Instead, he started comparing it to a completely different pasta dish from a different Italian restaurant. Rather than enjoying his dinner, he found fault with the waiter, the restaurant and the chef for not serving this other recipe. The dish was prepared wrong, even had the wrong ingredients! There shouldn't have been any tomatoes, there wasn't enough garlic, and the sauce wasn't right.
I sat there both stunned and amused because even though my dad's pasta was prepared exactly as he had requested, it wasn't what he really wanted. It wasn't the dish he was used to ordering at the other restaurant. Finally, I gently interrupted his litany of complaints, reminding him that he had received exactly what he ordered. In fact, after tasting it, I liked it even better than the dish he was comparing it to.
Dad replied, "I may have gotten what I ordered, but it wasn't what I wanted." My father had expected the waiter to read his mind and bring him something other than what he asked for.
Eventually, my dad's hunger got the best of him and he enjoyed his meal to the last bite. After all, when you're hungry, even the wrong dish fills your stomach.
What Career Menu Are You Ordering From?
As an RN, are you hungry for success but ordering the wrong dish off the wrong menu?
Do you feel exhausted by your working conditions and environment?
Do you dislike the hours, the weekends, administration, HMOs?
Are you cranky about too many patients and not enough time to provide the quality of care you know you're capable of?
If your career isn't where you want it to be, are you confusing your expectations and desires with what the traditional nursing menu offers? Are you trying to order a dish that isn't on the menu?
Like my father, you may have expectations about what you are being served. You may have tried your best to order exactly what you wanted. Yet what's on your plate has turned out very differently from what was in your head, and you have become dissatisfied. Unlike my father, who was my guest and couldn't leave the restaurant without appearing rude, you get to choose.
If you stay at your facility and order off the same old nursing menu, don't be surprised when you get what you've always gotten and continue to experience dissatisfaction and burn out. Much like the Salisbury steak in a hospital cafeteria, what healthcare facilities serve up for your career has been on the menu for years. Sometimes the description changes, sometimes the preparation changes, but it's still the same old Salisbury steak, and it is still not very satisfying.
Feast at a Brand New Restaurant
If you're salivating for a nursing dish with different ingredients, if you want more autonomy, freedom, control or money, it's time to feast at a new restaurant with a new and modern menu. Thousands of nurses have tasted the benefits you're seeking by becoming Certified Legal Nurse ConsultantsCM (CLNC®s).
CLNC®s don't order off the traditional menu offered by healthcare facilities. They've found a new menu that features more of what they want from nursing. And they're willing to leave their hospital restaurant to enjoy that innovative menu. For these nurses, the legal nurse consulting restaurant has the right menu — dishes that satisfy their palate in every way, and choices so plentiful they don't have to look anywhere else because any dish they can imagine is already on the CLNC® menu. As a new CLNC® you can savor and delight in these benefits, too:
Love what you do
Work from home
Be your own boss
Gain respect
Set your own hours
Life is meant to be an adventurous banquet filled with tasty and satisfying dining experiences. It's your meal — you get to choose the restaurant and write your own menu. Shouldn't you get what you want, what you deserve, like so many other nurses who have chosen to stop ordering off the wrong menu?
Your right menu is just an action step away. Go to the right nursing restaurant today and you'll find that one dish you've been craving. I invite you to join me and my CLNC® colleagues at the legal nurse consulting banquet — the taste sensation of a lifetime. Don't miss another minute of this exciting feast — reserve your place at the CLNC® banquet table today.
See you at the banquet, Vickie L. Milazzo, RN, MSN, JD
BEST PRACTICES FOR MARKETING
These 5 Simple Steps Take the Mystery Out of Marketing
to Insurance Companies
by Rose Clifford, RN, CLNC
Insurance companies are an excellent market for your legal nurse consulting services. Yet many LNCs don't tap this potential source of income as much as they could. If you haven't marketed your services to an insurance company, you may believe getting your foot in the door is difficult. It is not. Doing business with insurance companies is a matter of know-how, timing and opportunity. You can start reaping the financial rewards of working for insurance companies by taking these 5 simple steps:
Know what insurance companies need
Choose the right insurance companies
Start your prospecting close to home
Model after the CLNC® Pros
Project confidence
Know What Insurance Companies Need
Your goal is to provide the services insurance companies need and request most often. This list gives you a jump-start on the services to emphasize when marketing to insurance companies. The most frequently requested services are:
Medical records review with emphasis on interpretation of the records
Medical research on the disease process, the injury and the treatment required
Simple preliminary demonstrative evidence explaining the anatomy of the injury or treatment
Identification of preexisting injuries or illnesses that may have a bearing on the outcome of the case
Determination of medical necessity and appropriateness of treatment and billing
Identification of fraud
Choose the Right Insurance Companies
Many different types of insurance companies may be candidates for your services. Consider marketing to companies that offer the following:
Liability coverage (premises, fire, auto, home and professional, such as medical negligence)
Health and life insurance
Worker's compensation
Disability
Determining the types of insurance companies you wish to approach will dictate the focus of your marketing efforts (e.g., which sample reports you include in your promotional package).
Also consider the size of the insurance company that is right for your CLNC® practice. Larger companies, such as Blue Cross and Met-Life, support an in-house staff of nurses and doctors. If you're a new CLNC® seeking in-house employment, these giants are a wise choice. Aim your marketing efforts at identifying a company that needs a nurse, land the interview and focus the interview on the insurance company's needs.
For new CLNC®s seeking independent opportunities, smaller to mid-size insurance companies and new insurance companies are the best choices. Look for companies that have sufficient revenue to be financially stable and growing, but not enough to justify employing in-house nurses and doctors. Such insurance companies commonly contract for LNC services on a case-by-case basis.
Start Your Prospecting Close to Home
The most effective marketing strategies usually begin with who you know. Clue: Follow your own insurance premium dollars. Approach your own insurance agents (health, auto, life, homeowners, even dental). Briefly explain what you do as a legal nurse consultant, and ask the agent to refer you to his claims agent. Also find out all you can about the insurance defense attorneys that litigate the cases on behalf of the insurance company.
Which insurance defense firm does the insurance company retain for their cases?
Who are this firm's best attorneys?
Does the defense firm have a special investigative unit?
Who are the investigators?
When discussing these questions with your agent, be specific and clear with your questions and objectives. Ask for names and contact information, then ask for a referral. Word-of-mouth referrals always work best in getting your foot in the door.
Often your attorney-clients and peers have inside knowledge that a particular insurance company is open to using legal nurse consulting services. A referral from your own attorney-client can be your surest way of getting business.
Model After the CLNC® Pros
The CLNC®s know these marketing strategies work. Use them too.
Write a medical article for an insurance newsletter.
Speak at an insurance conference on a medical topic.
Exhibit at insurance conferences for attorneys and claims agents.
You may also find marketing opportunities through newspaper ads, attorneys and your CLNC® colleagues.
As with marketing to attorneys, one key to insurance marketing is to be sure you speak the prospect's language. Use insurance defense terms whenever you speak with claims agents, adjusters or insurance defense attorneys. In both your printed marketing materials and verbal communications, use terms like "claimant," "alleged" or "claimed."
Be honest and sincere in your approach. Offer something of value first to create interest and establish trust, such as a simple explanation of a common injury, e.g., RSD or herniated disc.
Project Confidence
Above all, you must project confidence. Take a positive approach, but don't act as if you're desperate for the prospect's business. After all, what attorney would want to work with an LNC who was desperate for business? You can increase your confidence by viewing your marketing program as an adventure and becoming one with your game.
Envision your desired results.
Close your eyes and feel the satisfaction of achieving those results.
Practice, practice, practice your script so that it becomes natural.
Fully experience each challenge, each endeavor, each accomplishment.
Be humble and thankful for your opportunities.
Have faith that more opportunities will come.
There's no great mystery to marketing your services to insurance companies. With a marketing plan and the basic marketing skills covered in the CLNC® Certification Program, you'll soon be tapping into this little-known opportunity to expand your CLNC® practice.
Rose Clifford, RN, CLNC has been an independent LNC since 1986. Her firm, Medical Analysis Resources, Inc. in Kentucky, specializes in healthcare fraud investigation, defense and prevention. Her practice includes clarifying the medical issues of litigation in medical malpractice, personal injury and criminal cases.
