Your attorney-client has provided a link to the medical records of three different providers of the patient. Your assignment: Review the medical records, provide a summary, and give your nursing opinion. You’re going to get paid handsomely for it, but how do you keep track of your time spent on the case?
Attorneys, usually defense attorneys, used to keep a notepad next to them and whenever they performed a task, they’d write it down on “time slips”. They’d include the date, time it took, and short description.
Fast forward to the digital era and attorneys keep “time” electronically. While that’s an option for legal nurse consultants, in my experience the best way to keep track of the time you spend on an assignment is by simply writing it down. Later, when it’s time to create an invoice, you can easily transcribe your time directly onto your invoice for services.
Follow these three steps to make recording your “time” easier 1. Keep a notepad next to you. On your notepad that’s kept next to you while you review a medical record, record the time you start and the time you stop, even if it’s just for a break. Then, record your restart time and stop time. Next to each start and stop time, record the task you performed.
For example, if I’m reviewing the medical bills from a healthcare provider, I would record the date and the start and stop time for those precise medical bills. My entry would say: “Review medical bills from [name of healthcare provider], 17 pages”.
2. Use the page count as a gauge. Once you review medical records and medical bills, you’ll get a feel for how long it ought to take you to review them. Of course, some documents require you to scrutinize them more in which case the page count is not necessarily reflective of how long it should take you to review them.
3. Record the amount of time per task. It’s possible that you could review the medical records and medical bills in a short amount of time, say, in one hour. Still, separate out the time you spent reviewing the medical records, summarizing the medical records, reviewing the medical bills, and summarizing the medical bills.
The reason to separate the time concisely is for your attorney-client’s benefit and, as is often the case, for the insurance company’s benefit. Recipients of your legal nurse consultant services want to know exactly how you spent your time and their money.
Keep it simple sweetheart will be your motto and you’ll find it’ll keep you in good stead.
Be prepared to handle a lot of money in your job as a Professional Legal Nurse Consultant. Start off right with a good accounting system and you’ll never have to worry. You don’t want to get yourself into a bind trying to piece together how much you billed and when. Worse yet, is trying to figure out how much you actually collected.
The Tax Man Cometh so be sure you’re in a good position from the start. Or if you’ve already started, clean up your accounting from here going forward by following these three methods.
Three methods to keep your accounting on track
1. Use a cash versus accrual accounting method. Decide how you’re going to keep track of the money coming in.
Simple put: Cash accounting reflects transactions when the cash flows into or out of your business. Accrual accounting reflects revenue as it’s earned and expenses as you incur them REGARDLESS of when you actually obtain the money.
For example, with cash accounting, as you receive the money, you record the date. As you purchase an item for your business, you record the date.
2. Open up a business bank account. Use the bank’s online app for mobile deposits. Get to know the branch manager, bank tellers, and bank representatives. This way, if something does go awry, you might be able to handle over the phone since they know you.
3. Keep track of all transactions daily. As a matter-of-fact, in my experience it’s best to check your bank’s app every morning so if there’s a discrepancy you’ll have time to address during banking hours.
Another of my experiences has been that “things take longer than you think”. Allow plenty of time to fix things as you might have to actually go to the bank in-person which would account for time there and bank, wait time, and time to speak with the bank’s representative.
The key to accounting success is recording everything timely. This means, when you send out an invoice, notate the date sent. When you receive the check for your invoice, notate the date received. When you buy something you need in your business, notate the date purchased.
By the end of the year, your “books” will be completely up-to-date. This will make your life indefinitely easier come tax time. You’ll be successful as a Professional Legal Nurse Consultant!
P.S. Comment below with your accounting hints. Or, email them at info@jurexnurse.com and we’ll be happy to share them with your PLNC colleagues.
You want to get PAID for the medical records you review. Here’s your Professional Legal Nurse Consultant primer on correctly billing your attorney-client so you earn the maximum. No more guesswork. No estimating. Follow these steps to make it easy for you and your attorney when it comes to billing.
The big difference between billable and nonbillable work for Legal Nurse Consultants
As a Professional Legal Nurse Consultant, your work is almost exclusively “billable” work. This means you’ll earn money for the legal nurse consultant services you provide. “Nonbillable” work, on the other hand, is work performed for which you can’t bill.
Let’s look at examples of both.
Billable work examples Reviewing medical records, reviewing medical bills, summarizing medical records, summarizing medical bills, drafting a chronology, researching medical conditions.
Nonbillable work examples
Preparing your invoice for work you performed, working on your own company’s marketing projects, trainings you attend, doing administrative work in your business, attending meetings not related to client assignments.
Six-minute billing cycle defined Lawyers usually bill their clients in six-minute increments. Every six minutes of time equals .10 of an hour.
As a PLNC, you might set your hourly rate at $150 per hour to review medical records. If you’re earning $150 per hour and you review a medical record for 30 minutes, you’d bill your attorney for .50 which means you’d earn $75.
Interestingly, for tasks that take you less than .10, you’ll normally round it up to .10 which is 6 minutes of time. Of course, it’s your prerogative if you want to not bill at all for tasks that take such little time.
For example, let’s say you receive an email from your attorney’s paralegal on a new case with instructions, descriptions, and the link to the medical records. If it took you close to six minutes to review this, you’d bill for .10. On your invoice you’d list the date, the description of “Review email from [Name of Paralegal] regarding instructions, description of facts, and medical records link” and the amount of time which would be .10.
You’re expected to be precise in your description on your invoice. This means including details on exactly what you did for the time you’re billing.
Ask yourself if what you did was billable or nonbillable work You’ll likely never bill for nonbillable work. Just know that the time it takes you to draft your invoice is on yourtime, not theirs. The first time you put together an invoice with your billable time on it, it could take you thirty minutes or longer. As you prepare more and more invoices it’ll take you much less time. Regardless, that’s part of doing business and you can’t bill for that.
One very important concept you should know is that you should ALWAYS be truthful in the amount of time billed. One overbill and your job with that attorney could be over. Worse yet, your reputation could be ruined. It’s never worth it to bill more than you actually worked.
The good news is that determining what’s billable and nonbillable work gets easier. As a matter-of-fact, you’ll likely master this distinction on your very first project.
P.S. Want to know how to hike your nursing income as a Professional Legal Nurse Consultant? Go here.
What type of personality do you have? It’s not a question of knowing yourself well, but well enough. We each have different personality temperaments and we use those traits in our lives and in our jobs.
You want to understand your personality temperament. What’s your core personality? Knowing this will unlock your potential and your self-awareness.
Just like there’s more than one nursing practice area, there’re many types of personalities that thrive in life and in careers. Look around in your current job. Think about the people you interact with. What types of personalities do you see?
How to determine if your personality fits with being a legal nurse consultant Think a nurse can only have one type of personality to be successful as a legal nurse consultant? Think again. There are MULTIPLE personality types of successful PLNCs.
Let’s figure out your personality type and see if it fits with being a legal nurse consultant also known as a nurse expert witness.
One of most often used personality tests is based on research by Swiss psychologist Carl Jung and it’s called the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator. The LINK to a FREE version of the Myers-Briggs short-form test is below.
Whether or not you’ve taken the Myers-Briggs test before, take the short one attached to the link at the end of this blog post.
The Myers-Briggs identifies many aspects of your personality, but here are the eight main types:
Which one are you or are you a combination? Extravert vs. Introvert: How we interact with world around us Sensing vs. Intuition: How we receive info and make decisions Thinking vs. Feeling: Our method of making decisions Judging vs. Perceiving: How we operate in the world
We get a four-letter combination. For example, you could be an IIFJ or and ESTP.
Legal Nurse Consultant Employment Settings Whether you’re an extravert, introvert, or a combination of these, as a PLNC, you’ll be able to use all your personality traits.
Let’s look at a real-life example
As a PLNC, you are your own boss. While you get medical record review assignments from an attorney, you get to work on your own, on your own time and at your own pace being mindful of any deadlines. You might provide your summary of the medical records by email, but you might provide them in-person in the attorney’s office or virtually via teleconference which we’ve come to know as Zoom, WebEx, Microsoft Teams, etc.
This goes to show you that no matter what your “Personality Type” is, you can be successful as a PLNC. In legal nurse consulting practice, you can draw on your more prominent traits.
There’s not just one type of personality that’s successful in legal nurse consulting practice. Look around you in nursing practice. Is only one nurse more successful than another? No.
The most important aspect of knowing your personality type is becoming more self-aware. So, take a short-form FREE version of Myers-Briggs test. And know that regardless of your personality type, you’re suited to be a successful Professional Legal Nurse Consultant.
P.S. Take the free version of a Myers-Briggs Type Indicator here. What is your personality type?
Motivation. What do you think of when you hear this word? Energy. Drive. Success. Yes, all of these. Let’s talk about motivating yourself in your nursing career to achieve more, and therefore, to earn more money, more accolades, and more time for the things in life you want. Like having extra spending money, getting to go on that long-awaited vacation, buying that pricey pair of shoes you’ve been eyeing.
How do you get from where you are in your current nursing job to where you want to be in your career?
Breaking down the four steps of motivation success 1. Create your goals. Have you said any of these to yourself? “I became a nurse to do good. I want to earn more using my nursing skills. I want to be the best version of myself”. You can achieve meaningful goals. For example, your goal might be: I want to improve my nursing skill set so I can earn more money.
Decide on the front end what you want to achieve. This way you’ll know when you get there. Don’t let that dictate how much or how often you pursue your goals. There’s more to life than merely setting goals. (We’re going to explore that next).
2. Develop simple steps to achieve your goals. Have a Plan. Not just any old plan, but a simple, yet straight-forward plan that you’re willing to try.
This means you must prioritize what’s important and do that first. As it’s been said “Done is better than perfect”. For example, sticking with your same goal of “I want to improve my skill set so I can earn more money: Plan: I’ll search online three nursing certification programs. Since I’m interested in being a legal nurse consultant, I’ll email the contact for each one. Then, I’ll follow up if I haven’t heard back from them.
3. Manage your time. We all have 24 hours in a day. Take out 8 or so hours for sleep and we’re left with 16 hours to make a difference in our lives. Tell yourself you’re going to use those 16 hours to the best of your ability. Already working a full-time job? Then there’re less hours left in the day. Don’t waste them. Sticking with our example: Use 10 minutes here or 30 minutes there to check your emails, call the legal nurse consultant program, or if you’re already a PLNC, take 30 minutes or an hour to review those medical records for your attorney-client as a PLNC. One hour of your legal nurse consultant time equals $150.
4. Reward yourself. As you complete a step in your plan, reflect on your accomplishment (or even your failure). That’s how we learn. We ALL have to overcome setbacks in order to move forward. For example, you registered for the Professional Legal Nurse Consultant Certification program. Log into it and look around at the online program. Get a feel for it knowing you’re on your way to achieving your goal!
You want to keep your motivational drive going so tell that grey matter inside your head what you want it to do. Now, go do it!
P.S. Want more motivation from someone who’s been where you are? Book an appointment with Elizabeth Rudolph, JD, MSN, RN, PLNC here.
Good news! Professional Legal Nurse Consultants (PLNC) handleall kindsof cases. There are approximatey 1.32 MILLION attorneys in the United States according to the American Bar Association. That’s a lot of lawyers who could use your skills. There are at least 16 different types of legal cases you could work on.
You’re a nurse. You’re qualified to be a Professional Legal Nurse Consultant. Let’s look at the legal nurse consultant benefits you’ll get when you use your nursing skills in legal cases. You get to be valued for your nursing and acquired legal knowledge and you earn money doing it.
Let’s talk about the sixteen types of cases you’ll be able to work on as a PLNC Medical Malpractice: By far, this is the most common type of case you’ll work on. You’d be surprised how often medical and nursing malpractice comes up in every day clinical practice. We’re talking “negligence”. When a professional nurse commits “negligence” it’s considered “medical malpractice” and, even more specifically, it’s called “nursing malpractice”. Who better than you to review the medical record when “nursing malpractice” is at issue?
Personal injury: You’ve heard the television commercials for car wrecks, slip and falls, liability at establishments. Inevitably, the individual will claim a personal injury. Often this is in addition to property damage. For example, in an automobile accident, the rear-ended driver could have both personal injury and property damage. You’d be reviewing the relevant medical records both past and present.
Product liability: As nurses, you’ve administered medications and used durable medical equipment. Well, these products can potentially cause harm. In addition, your everyday consumer products also fall into this category.
Toxic tort: Tort cases are basically negligence cases. Hazardous materials, lead poisoning, and radiation are examples of toxic materials that can be a part of a negligence case.
Criminal defense: This is when someone is charged with a crime. Potential cases you might find yourself reviewing are driving under the influence (DUI), assault and/or battery, just name a couple. There are various stages of charging including arrest, arraignment, grand jury investigation, plea bargain and/or trial. Even appeal. Often times there are accompanying medical records that need reviewing.
Elder Law: This area of the law has seen significant increases in recent years. Elder law includes anything from elder abuse and neglect to an estate contest, advanced directive, or even a conservatorship. Your job is to review the medical records and give your opinion.
Workers’ Compensation: The goal of workers’ compensation laws is that of wage replacement and to provide medical benefits when an employee is injured during the job. There are specific workers’ compensation courts that handle these types of cases. You’re integrally involved as the medical benefit is central to the case.
Social Security Disability: When an individual makes a claim for supplemental security income, the medical evidence is critical to their case. There could be medical records from multiple providers to be reviewed.
Probate: Often contests on the decedent’s state of mind might be at issue in a last will and testament contest, a living will, or even a durable power of attorney for healthcare. The healthcare providers medical records will need to be carefully looked at in order to make this determination.
Juvenile Justice: This area of the law revolves around children and adolescents. Not only could it involve crimes, but child welfare as well. The juvenile court system is usually separate from that of adults.
Family Law: Domestic relationships can include issues including violence, custody, adoption, guardianship, surrogacy, and paternity to name a few. As a result, there are numerous medical records to review.
Healthcare Law: The fun thing about this area of the law is that it largely centers around laws, regulations, and public policies. At issue could be access to health care, perhaps food or drug regulation, and other manner of medically-related issues.
Pro Bono: “Pro bono public” translates into for the public good. This refers to legal services rendered to those unable to pay. As a PLNC, you may be able to assist an attorney in pro bono matters.
Litigation: Litigation is broken down into two categories: civil and criminal. Lawsuits involve individuals and/or business entities. Litigation can go on for short or long periods of time. Often, the parties opt to settle the matter in order to resolve it.
eDiscovery: With the advent of technology, finding out about each other’s cases has become much easier. “Discovering” the other side’s facts and theories is done through electronic requests. Plus, the medical record is usually provided in its digital format making it able to sent via email to you to review. As with any electronic data, there could be texts, emails, images, and metadata to review in addition to the electronic health record.
Administrative Law: This refers to disciplinary action. For licensed healthcare providers, such as nurses, the Board of Nursing has the ability to proceed with disciplinary action against a nurse. Often the issue is related to nursing care.
There’re so many areas of practice where you can make a difference. Be open. And, you’ll broaden your skill-set.
