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Join us as we chat with Stephanie Pearson, a board-certified obstetrician-gynecologist and the CEO of PearsonRavitz, an insurance advisory firm. Stephanie shares her personal journey of resilience and reinvention after a career-ending injury, and how she found new purpose in educating and empowering fellow physicians to protect their financial and emotional well-being with the right disability insurance. Tune in to gain insights into her inspiring story of overcoming adversity and discovering new opportunities for growth and impact.

Stephanie Pearson is a board-certified obstetrician-gynecologist and an educator for disability and life insurance for physicians. She is CEO, PearsonRavitz, an insurance advisory firm, and can be reached on Instagram @pearsonravitz and Facebook.

She shares her story and discusses her KevinMD article, “From physician to patient: one doctor’s journey to finding purpose after a devastating injury.”

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Transcript

Kevin Pho: Hi, and welcome to the show. Subscribe at KevinMD.com/podcast and get CME for this episode by clicking on the CME link in the show notes. Today we welcome Stephanie Pearson. She’s a board-certified obstetrician-gynecologist and an educator for disability and life insurance for physicians. She is CEO of PearsonRavitz, which is an insurance advisory firm. We’re going to talk about her KevinMD article, “From physician to patient: one doctor’s journey to finding purpose after a devastating injury.” Stephanie, welcome to the show.

Stephanie Pearson: Thank you for having me.

Kevin Pho: So your article pretty much tells your story, so let’s start with that. Tell us, how did your article come together? Share your story with us.

Stephanie Pearson: Yes, sure. So as you mentioned, I’m an OB/GYN first and foremost. Unfortunately, about 10 years into my career, I was called down to do a precipitous delivery. My patient was lovely; she didn’t have a chance, however, to get her epidural. And unfortunately, when I went to help deliver the baby, I was kicked twice in the shoulder, and unfortunately, she ruined my shoulder and career. I had a torn labrum. I was initially told by my first orthopedist that baseball pitchers pitch with torn labrums, so I should be able to do my job. And so, like I would say most type-A physicians, I put my head down and figured out how to compensate, until I felt like, ethically, I was not doing my job, and I had surgery shortly thereafter, because I developed a frozen shoulder.

My new orthopedist was at the foot of my bed when I woke up, and as most physicians know, that’s not normally what happens. He basically said it looked like a bomb went off in my shoulder. I was not cleared to do OB or operate. Interestingly, I was cleared to do office GYN as tolerated. However, one, my contract actually said I needed to be able to do 100 percent of my job, so I was terminated the day my FMLA was up. And secondly, my orthopedist did put in black and white that I was a liability, and so at that point, I couldn’t get malpractice coverage.

In hindsight, he probably did me a favor, because I do have considerable range-of-motion deficits and nerve damage, and I may have ended up putting myself in a position that I shouldn’t be in as a physician. But if you had asked me that 10 years ago, my answer would be very different. And I learned a lot the hard way about disability and life insurance. I learned a lot about losing your identity and trying to find new purpose and reinvent myself. And so that’s really where the article came from: out of a sense of realizing how many people out there have gone through, or are currently going through, what I went through 10 years ago. And if I could help one person, and I know that sounds pretty trite, but if I could help somebody through that, then I would feel good about it.

Kevin Pho: So take us into your mindset 10 years ago, when that orthopedic surgeon said that you couldn’t do 100 percent OB/GYN anymore. You mentioned things about your identity being tied into what you did. Tell us what you were feeling during that time, when your professional way forward was an open question.

Stephanie Pearson: It’s an understatement to say I felt horrible. Initially, I was in shock. I felt like, “What do you mean I’m not going to get back?” I’ve had other issues in the past, and through physical therapy and care, I’ve been back to being perfect. And so at first, it was definitely shock, and then it really went through the entire normal grief process: of being angry, of “Why me?”, of “Whose fault is this?” And I didn’t quite make it to the acceptance phase in the beginning, as I mentioned in the article.

And it was probably the most vulnerable I’ve been. I’ve talked about being suicidal in the past; I’ve never actually put it in writing. But I felt like, for my family, I was better off not here. Part of that stemmed from the fact that I was no longer practicing, but really it came from the fact that I had been underinsured for disability insurance and overinsured for life insurance, and I felt like financially my family was better off. I had always told my husband, “I’m not a great housewife, but I’m going to make money, and I’ll keep you well fed.” I love cooking. And all of a sudden, I couldn’t guarantee that I was going to make money.

And so I was very myopic in my thought process, obviously due to major depression and other factors. But like most people who have had suicidal ideations, most of them will tell you you’re not thinking rationally when you’re thinking about that. And I think that was the lowest of my low.

Kevin Pho: Tell us about your support system during that time. Obviously, it doesn’t sound like your job was helpful in the least, but tell us about some of the other support systems that helped you through this difficult time.

Stephanie Pearson: I had, and have, a wonderful husband, who was incredibly supportive. I had a psychologist, I had a psychiatrist, and I had one physician, one of my mentors, actually, who hurt himself shortly after I did, and we were both out at the same time. And so I was seeing my therapist every other day for a while, and my other disabled physician friend, now granted, he was much older than me, so he had had a full practice career, but we would go to the gym together every other day to do our physical therapy. And I think that being able to talk with him, on top of therapy and my husband, was really super helpful.

And ultimately, my dog saved my life. I think I mentioned it in my article: My husband brought home a puppy and said, “Look, the boys and I are clearly not enough to get you out of bed and get yourself going, so you have a choice. You can be surrounded by filth, or you can get out of your own way and take care of something again.” And I hated him at first. I was like, “Are you effing kidding me? This is the last thing I need on my plate.” But in reality, I wasn’t going to be surrounded by filth.

And so I started taking her for walks, I started going to the dog park, and believe it or not, I found my identity again at the dog park. Nobody there knew me as Dr. Pearson; I was just Stephanie with a dog. And half the time, I wasn’t even Stephanie; I was Kim’s mom. For those people who have animals and go to dog parks, most of the time, people don’t even remember the adults’ names; they remember the dogs’ names, and it’s just light conversation. And so Kim really helped me get out of my own way.

Kevin Pho: You said earlier that during this time, there were a lot of surprising things that you learned about this whole disability process. So tell us: What are some of the most surprising things that you discovered?

Stephanie Pearson: So the single most surprising was that my hospital policy didn’t cover work-related injuries. I was flatly denied and told I would have been better off had I fallen off my bike, which is fascinating, considering if I didn’t do my job, I would have had a compromised or dead baby that the hospital would have then spent millions defending me or settling. So that was probably the most surprising.

Workman’s comp initially denied my claim, because they said while an injury occurred, my frozen shoulder was my fault, because I continued to work while I was injured. Also surprising, right? I’m doing what I’m being told to do. So I did have to sue for that. And I came to find out that the private policies that I had purchased were not exactly what I should have had, and I really felt as though I had not been properly educated. I wasn’t really being advocated for when I had to go and make my claims. The broker was not at all helpful, and as it turns out, they don’t have to be.

Now, being on the other side of things, especially because of HIPAA, most of the time, agents and brokers don’t get involved on the back end; it becomes you and the company. But there is a lot that we can do to help, and so that’s part of how this company started.

Kevin Pho: All right, so tell us about this next chapter in your life. You’re no longer able to practice clinically. Tell us what happened next.

Stephanie Pearson: So initially, in trying to figure out what was next for me, the insurance stuff wasn’t first. I actually dipped my toes into a few other things. I did some med mal defense work, which I loved. I actually really, really enjoyed it, thinking that I was helping my other OB colleagues who had been in bad situations. But in Pennsylvania, you time out: Once you haven’t seen patients clinically for three years, you can’t be an expert witness. So I timed out. I tried to do some medical editing; it just wasn’t what I wanted. I didn’t feel passionately about it. I did some biotech consulting; again, it was fun, but I wasn’t jumping out of bed.

And at the same time, I really started lecturing at area residency programs, purely altruistically: “Here’s my story. Here are the mistakes I made. Don’t make the same mistakes. This is what you should be doing.” And people started reaching out to me: “Well, can you actually help me with this?” And so my husband was like, “Maybe this is what you should be doing.”

Kevin Pho: Now, what kind of questions did they ask you?

Stephanie Pearson: What makes the right policy? What do you wish you had known? Can you get me my policy? So initially, it was just education, and then I was sending them on their way. Then when they were saying, “Well, why can’t you sell me a policy? Why can’t you help me with this process?” that’s when my husband was like, “Maybe this is what you’re supposed to be doing next.” And so I locked myself in my room with a bunch of textbooks and colored magic markers, took the test, got licensed, and decided to start a company. We started at our kitchen table and then quickly got a following, and everything else is history.

And now we still absolutely lead with education, and I think that’s one of the things that sets us apart: We’re truly Switzerland. We are a brokerage firm, so we’re not in bed with any specific company. But beyond that, we’ve taken away the commission base for all of our employees, so everyone is salaried. So it’s all about education; it’s all about transparency. I’m not worried about anyone giving advice based on dollar signs.

Kevin Pho: So did you have any training? What kind of training did you have to undertake in order to start this company?

Stephanie Pearson: So I had to get licensed, and every state is a little bit different. You sit for an exam; it’s multiple choice. It’s the same type of exam spaces that we went to for our boards. So I needed to do that. Similar to CME credits, I need to do continuing education credits every year. And a lot of it was learn as I go, whether it was figuring out how to run a business by talking to other business owners, or getting good lawyers and a good accountant. It truly was a lot of gut and hustle, of getting out there and reaching out to physician friends and colleagues and saying, “You know what happened to me. What can I do to help?” And so the short answer is, there was a lot of learning on the job.

Kevin Pho: So it goes without saying that a lot of physicians often don’t know what goes on in their disability and life insurance policies. So tell us: What are some things they should watch out for? What are some red flags? What are some common pitfalls that physicians should be aware of?

Stephanie Pearson: I would say a couple of quick pitfalls: if you’re speaking to somebody who can’t answer your questions and who isn’t explaining definitions. I think just getting handed a one-sheet comparison when you’re not really sure what you’re even looking at is a big red flag. What’s super, super important, from a disability standpoint, is that your policy is truly specialty-specific, not just by the definition of your occupation, but by the definition of total disability. Sometimes it’s almost a lie of omission, that policies will say that they’re own occupation, but then the definition of total disability is that you can’t do your job and are not gainfully employed. And for most of us, that’s not a definition that we want.

I have the utmost respect for stay-at-home parents; I’m not one of them. I used to say the old adage of “I’d give my left arm to be home with my boys more,” and after six weeks of giving up my left arm and being home with my boys more, I was not in a good place. And so you want to make sure that all of the definitions are the way they should be. I think that you want to make sure that somebody is giving you comparisons, that it’s not “Here’s one,” because there are more than one, and it’s not one-size-fits-all.

Life insurance for young physicians: While I think that there’s a time and a place for permanent life insurance, it’s not when you’re young and raising kids. So anyone trying to sell you that is probably just trying to make money.

And I think that as far as other pitfalls, they’re more personal pitfalls. We’re seeing a lot of physicians who are either writing their own prescriptions or having their friends write their prescriptions, and not having a primary care doctor or a therapist or psychiatrist. The companies need to see a paper trail, and they’re going to get the hit that you’ve filled a medication, and that’s actually making people uninsurable on the disability side. And it makes it harder to get life insurance if the companies don’t know that you’re getting proper follow-up, or what you’re actually taking medication for. And not keeping pace with screening tests, preventative medicine stuff: They want to make sure that if a test has been ordered, you’ve actually followed through with it.

And I get it. I was there. I remember what it’s like to be super busy, when you’re trying to find time to eat and go to the bathroom, let alone trying to find time to go to another physician, when we have the knowledge. But it’s more than just having the knowledge. For these private commodities, no one’s telling us we have to purchase them, and so they have lots of rules, and we just have to play by them. I’ve tried to effect change for some of the underwriting on the disability side, and some of that has been successful, but at the end of the day, they rule the nest.

Kevin Pho: Now, should most physicians look outside their work when it comes to life and disability insurance? Because I’m sure a lot of doctors will just take whatever they’re given at work. So at what point should they be looking outside, to other parties?

Stephanie Pearson: Absolutely. So the best time is when you’re in training, and the reason is, well, there are several reasons, but the biggest reason is that most of the carriers have discounts that are available when you’re in training that stick with you forever, that if you wait until you’re an attending, we just don’t have access to, and that is thousands and thousands of dollars in savings. Also, when you’re a resident, you’re never younger, and most of us are never healthier. So there are a few reasons.

When you end up with your employer benefits, they don’t have to tell us what’s there. It’s usually one line on your open enrollment packet; you check a box, and it is what it is. Unfortunately, that leaves a lot of us in the dark. Most group benefits are only covering a portion of your base salary, and I say base because a lot of us get paid in other ways, whether it’s an RVU bonus, an overtime bonus, a call differential, or an education differential. A lot of those aren’t covered. Also, most of them have a maximum monthly benefit. They don’t have to tell you that up front. I’ve seen it as low as $1,000 a month and as high as $35,000 a month, so a big swing. And there’s no standardization of language, and so a lot of these carriers, as I mentioned before, say they’re own occupation, but they’re really not.

And they’ve gotten really creative at other things that they’re limiting, especially since COVID. So we’re seeing an uptick in group coverages that don’t cover work-related injuries. They’re also now saying they’re not covering work-related illnesses, which I think is a super slippery slope. They’re almost always limiting mental health coverage. They’ve started limiting musculoskeletal coverage, which, by the way, is the number one reason that physicians leave. There’s a whole new subjective illness section, where it’s “including but not limited to,” so the things that don’t necessarily have pathognomonic tests. We know that a lot of headache sufferers have clean scans. We know a lot of people with pain syndromes have clean EMGs. So they’ve now started to really lump pain, fatigue, headaches, ringing in the ears, and repetitive motion issues, where they’re limiting these payouts. And I am often in an unenviable position of pointing these things out to people when they think that they were properly covered, and then I point these things out, and it’s all new.

Life insurance: Employer life insurance, honestly, I look at as a bonus. Most of us are not going to die at work, if we look at normal age charts. Most of those are not portable, so if you leave your job, and this is for both disability and life insurance, but thinking about life insurance, you’re not taking it with you. They’re often also up to a certain maximum benefit, right, which is often not enough for physicians. And they’re really quick to decline people, because it’s a group benefit. It’s not actually an individual one-by-one, so they don’t like covering people. And so if you reach a certain point and then you have to go through medical underwriting, they’re actually a lot harder than, say, if you’re looking for an individual policy.

And so that’s kind of why I say to people, “Look, get as much as you can get through work that’s not expensive, but look at it as a bonus.” You still need to have your own coverage, making sure your kids are protected. Now, for some people who decide not to have kids, is it your partner that you’re taking care of? Is it your parents, if something happens to you young? And so we need to look at all of those factors and make sure that people truly have the coverage that they need when they need it.

Kevin Pho: We’re talking to Stephanie Pearson. She’s a board-certified obstetrician-gynecologist. She’s the CEO of PearsonRavitz, an insurance advisory firm. Stephanie, tell us some of your take-home messages that you want to leave with the KevinMD audience.

Stephanie Pearson: From a personal standpoint, please, if you have an event where you feel like all is lost, it’s not. There are plenty of online communities now that didn’t exist 10 years ago. Please ask for help; it’s out there. Number two, we have so much knowledge and skill set, becoming a physician. I often hear, “I can’t do anything else.” There are hundreds, if not thousands, of things that physicians can do outside of clinical practice. And from an insurance standpoint, please make sure that you know what you’re getting through work, if you’re getting something through work, and please get private coverage in place as early as you can.

Kevin Pho: Stephanie, thank you so much for sharing your story, time, and insight. Thanks again for being on the show.

Stephanie Pearson: Thanks for having me.