The Fascinating Intersection of Medicine and Law with Dr. Armin Feldman, the founder and CEO of MD Business Consultants and Physicians Legal Consultants

[00:00:01] This podcast is produced by Outcomes Rocket, your healthcare exclusive digital marketing agency. Outcomes Rocket exists to help healthcare organizations like yours to maximize their impact and accelerate growth. Visit outcomesrocket.com or text us at 312-224-9945.

[00:00:29] Hey everybody, Saul Marquez with the Outcomes Rocket. I want to welcome you back to the podcast. Today I have the privilege of hosting yet again, the amazing Dr. Armin Feldman. Armin, so great to see you again. Same here, Saul. Really good to see you and congratulations on all of your success since I was a guest on your podcast last. You know, if you do anything long enough and you kind of stick with it, it tends to work out.

[00:01:00] Yeah, luck is something that you make, right? Amen. So hard work and luck, but I think the luck part is because of the hard work. Amen to that. Amen to that. And so excited to catch up with you. And for the listeners that may not have heard our podcast, it was about three, four years ago. A little quick introduction on Dr. Armin Feldman. He is the founder and CEO at MD Business Consultants.

[00:01:27] They do a variety of things, but mainly focused on a coaching program and business system for physicians doing medical legal consulting. And they've got a podcast now that he's going to catch us up on and really kind of some great training programs for physicians out there. So, Armin, so great to have you back. You know, for the listeners that don't know you, what is it that got you into the healthcare and legal game?

[00:01:52] As you know from our talking before, I was a psychiatrist. Although if somebody asked me what my specialty is now, I say it's forensic medicine because it's what I've been doing for the last 16 years. And what I started 16 years ago, now, so even over what, four years ago, it's really turned into a new subspecialty of forensic medicine.

[00:02:17] So I used to own outpatient head injury rehabilitation clinics. And my area of specialty way back when was mild traumatic brain injury. And in doing that work, I testified as an expert, you know, really more times than I want to remember on behalf of my patients who were either being cut off of their medical care or offered some pittance of a settlement.

[00:02:43] And these people obviously were injured, no fault of their own. So I was very fortunate. Eventually, I sold those clinics and I was looking for something else to do, something new to do. And I thought, well, maybe what I could do is just consult to attorneys pre-trial, pre-litigation, not as a medical expert, not going to trial and acting as an expert, but working with them on those approximately nine out of 10 cases that they negotiate and settle.

[00:03:11] So I started doing that. And what I tell the physicians that I train now is most everything that I teach is based on the mistakes that I made as I was pioneering this new field. So now there are physicians that I've trained a little over 1600, but physicians that I've trained all over the country doing this kind of work. And so that's very gratifying and it's very exciting.

[00:03:41] And some poor person gets rear-ended in an accident at Poughkeepsie and has problems and their insurance company is doing right by them. They hire an attorney and that attorney hires a physician that I've trained. And that person at Poughkeepsie doesn't have a clue that I trained that person and that person's getting help that they desperately need. It's very gratifying. What's the obstacle? Is it an insurance company not wanting to pay?

[00:04:08] People obviously pay their monthly insurance premiums and act in good faith and expect that when they need that insurance, that their insurance company will treat them right. And sometimes that happens and sometimes it doesn't.

[00:04:21] So in the cases in which it doesn't and the insurance company is really fighting that person with regard to what damages they are entitled to or what medical treatment that they're entitled to and they're not getting that help, what these individuals do is they'll hire an attorney to help them.

[00:04:43] A personal injury attorney in cases where there's negligence and a claimant worker's cop attorney in cases where they've been injured on the job. Probably everybody listening has been on the end of getting the coverage that they needed, whether it's property casualty, personal. Right. And so love that you're helping physicians with additional income stream opportunities with the end of helping consumers that need this type of coverage.

[00:05:13] So I think it's a very worthwhile activity that you're engaged in. You said you've trained over 1,600. How do you do it? How do you get so many people trained up? Thank you for asking that. There are a few ways that physicians can get involved. One is I have a one-year training program, my medical legal consulting coaching program, and that's one way that they can get involved. Before the pandemic, I used to do live conference once a year.

[00:05:43] That was a two-day crash course in how to do this. I haven't really been able to do that since the pandemic. So another way that physicians can learn this is I have an online course. The online course is over eight weeks. It's broken into two-week segments. There are four on-demand videos in each segment and related downloadable materials.

[00:06:08] And then at the end of each two-week segment, I do a live Q&A to answer the physician's questions on that segment. And so that's another way that they can get trained up. So those are the two main ways now that physicians can learn to do this. Are you looking for ways to stay fresh?

[00:06:29] I think the work that Dr. Feldman does to empower physicians to take control of their careers and their income and really help the people that they want to help is a really great opportunity. And the show notes will leave a way for you to learn more about those programs. So talk to us about your podcast. You guys kicked off a podcast. You're about 35 episodes in, as I understand. And what are you guys covering and why should people listen?

[00:06:53] So I think it's important that the physicians that are listening to this know that to do this work, your specialty doesn't matter. Any physician in any specialty can learn how to do this pre-trial, pre-litigation consulting. So we're really consulting on any kind of medical question that comes up in a case. Obviously, if the case goes to trial, then the attorney will need medical experts in every area of injury.

[00:07:20] But for the purpose of negotiating and settling the case, what the attorney needs are well-thought-out medical opinions, reports, and other services that are going to help them to better negotiate and settle the case on behalf of their client. And that's where we come in. So any physician that's interested in this can do this.

[00:07:40] I'll say that most physicians do this as a part-time side gig, which since physicians now, most of them are employees, what's the biggest trend? Everybody wants some kind of a side gig, right? So this is an ideal way to have a side gig where it's interesting and lucrative. And you're still helping people that really desperately need the help. But getting back to the podcast. Well, hey, Armin, actually, that's very interesting. And thank you for sharing that with us.

[00:08:09] I wasn't even thinking about what kind, but it's great to know that all types of physicians can do it. And the next question that comes to mind is, so let's just say they start doing it. How do they get into the flow of deals? How do they start getting jobs? How does that work? The training program, it's a good question. And the training program is really about two things. First of all, of course, it's about the medicine that you need to know and how to approach it.

[00:08:36] But the other half of what I teach is on the business side. So how do you start up and successfully run long-term a medical legal consulting business? So there are very specific things like a step-by-step launch plan that will take you from zero, no business, to up and running with your business. Up and running is defined as now being in a position to start soliciting business from attorneys.

[00:09:04] And there's also a very detailed, tried and true. I mean, I've been doing this 16 years, been training physicians for 14 years. But there's a tried and true marketing plan. And that's the answer to your question, is that there's a detailed step-by-step marketing plan for, first, how do you get your clients? And second, how are you going to keep them long-term?

[00:09:28] And the physicians in my coaching program have all of those things available to them, libraries, sample reports, and newsletters, a whole bunch of things. But the main difference between the course and the coaching program is they also get a year of coaching with me. So it's possible to do it in either way, by taking the course and going off on your own. Or for those physicians that want something a little more comprehensive or gives them a little bit more of a head start,

[00:09:58] there's the coaching program as well. Something worth checking out, folks, if you are a physician looking for more opportunities. So, Armin, tell us about this podcast. You know, I'm a big fan of giving our listeners content that is meaningful and it sounds like you're doing some very interesting stuff with yours. Tell us about it. I'm doing this podcast with one of my former students who's been doing medical legal consulting now in Pittsburgh four or five years.

[00:10:28] His name is Dr. Mike Bummer. So Mike and I do this podcast. We try to do it every other week. And the intended audience for this podcast was attorneys, personal injury attorneys, workers, comp attorneys, and others. And an unexpected but pleasant thing that's happened is, and we're building our listenership and our listenership seems to be quite loyal and we're doing quite well in terms of downloads and all that stuff.

[00:10:57] But one thing that happened is we're finding out that about half as many physicians are tuning into this podcast as our attorneys. And I'm sure this is the same for your podcast, but the other thing that is a little bit strange to me, there are actually some people all over the world listening to this podcast and people from the general public as well. But our main audience is attorneys and physicians.

[00:11:23] So Mike and I talk about all kinds of aspects of medical legal consulting, what kind of cases, various medical conditions, working with the attorneys, a whole variety of things. And of course, we want it to be educational, both for the attorneys and the physicians and the general public. But we also want to make it interesting.

[00:11:47] Obviously, we tell a lot of stories, interesting stories and situations that come up for us as consulting doctors and in working with the attorneys. That's fantastic. And what's the name of the podcast, Armin? The podcast is Physicians Helping Attorneys Helping People because we work on the side of the injured person. We don't work on the side of the insurance company. So we're working on behalf of injured people.

[00:12:14] And like any other podcast, you can listen to it anywhere you listen to podcasts. Amazing. Physicians Helping Attorneys Helping People. Folks, we'll link that up in the show notes as well. If that's of interest to you, check it out. Armin, I always love what you do. There's so many great opportunities out there to add value to the healthcare ecosystem. You certainly have been doing that for people, but also physicians and attorneys.

[00:12:40] And so really want to take a minute here to recognize you and all your contributions to the space. If you had a call to action for our listeners today, what would you leave them with? Yeah. So if you're an attorney, this is a way to really understand the medicine in the case to make sure you're doing your full duty towards your client. And help, we really do, is through helping them understand and argue the medicine of the case.

[00:13:06] What we're really doing is helping to increase the case value and helping the attorney to maximize damages and maximize future medical care and costs in the work that we do. For physicians, this is a way for you to do some non-clinical work that is interesting. As I said a moment ago, it's interesting. You learn a tremendous amount of medicine. It pays pretty well.

[00:13:34] But the nice thing about this particular non-clinical work is you're still helping people. I think most physicians do get into medicine because they want to help people. So this is a way to help people in a non-clinical field. You really get to see the tangible results of your work. Sometimes, for example, we'll come up, you know, every doctor is doing their piece of the case. One person's working on the shoulder injury.

[00:14:02] Another person's working on the depression. Another person's working on the mild traumatic brain injury. Really, nobody's got a full view of the case. Nobody has a 30,000-foot view. So oftentimes, we'll find a diagnosis that's accident-related that has just been missed. And so we can let the attorney know that and help them to guide their client to the appropriate treatment, get the diagnosis made by a treating doctor,

[00:14:30] and get treated for a condition that might have been missed otherwise. Well, certainly great calls to action there, Dr. Philbin. Appreciate you jumping back on the podcast with us. Folks, take action, right? If you're going to get on that rocket, take your outcomes, whether it's your business or your patient outcomes to the next level. You've got to take action. Don't just stop at listening. And Armin, thank you for taking action and being with us again here on the podcast. It's been a true pleasure to have you back. Same here.

[00:14:59] Thanks for having me back. This podcast is produced by Outcomes Rocket, your healthcare-exclusive digital marketing agency. Outcomes Rocket exists to help healthcare organizations like yours to maximize their impact and accelerate growth.

[00:15:25] Visit outcomesrocket.com or text us at 312-224-9945.