Why Every Physician Should Make the Purchase of Having a Disability Insurance Policy Their Immediate Priority

Did you know that statistics show that 70% of Americans have no disability insurance coverage at all. In fact, 3 and 10 Americans become disabled at some point before they retire. And even more frightening is that 60% of all personal bankruptcies are filed as a result of an inability to pay for medical expenses for loss of the ability to work. As a physician, you may think that you are too busy to deal with a disability insurance agent or that there is any value in having a long term disability policy. Well, doctor, I hate to tell you that you should take the time to protect not only your income, but your families security.

Let’s be frank, you might not have the time or the expertise to learn about disability insurance benefits- consider this an exercise in “continuing medical education”.

Many physician groups have a practice administrator who is primarily responsible for managing the personal and business affairs of your practice. Your administrator is a gatekeeper and while that may be great for your practice, it may not be so great when you evaluate disability policies. You should consult with an individual disability insurance agent and be prepared to spend some time to learn about:

1. Contract provisions that meet your unique professional needs so that, for example, you have a specialty/sub-specialty definition of disability in your policy.
2. You have policy terms that favorably determine your pre-disability monthly income so that if you become disabled there is a proper calculation of the base amount of benefits.
3. Policy benefits that meet your financial needs without any offsets or reductions, buyouts of your practices.

These are just few of the things that you should be prepared to discuss with your individual disability agent in making this important decision.

You wouldn’t want to leave your family without a source of income if you became disabled and unable to practice medicine. If you are a physician looking for the right attorney to handle and help you with your disability insurance policy, give us a call today.