Coverage Options and Key Considerations
As a physician, you’ve spent years of your life on your training and education, honing your skills and expertise and dedicating yourself to improving the health and well-being of others. You’ve built a successful practice, and your patients, family, partners and employees depend on your ability to continue working. But what happens if you become unable to work due to an unexpected disability?
As a physician, it’s vital that you maintain adequate disability insurance in order to protect yourself, your family, your employees, your patients and your practice. Here, we explore disability coverage options and offer key considerations to keep in mind when selecting a policy.
Disability insurance coverage options
Disability insurance provides financial support should you become unable to work due to an accident or sickness. If you work for a hospital system or other healthcare organization, you may be covered by an employer-sponsored, occupation-specific group disability policy for up to two years. If you own or are a partner in a practice, it’s important to purchase individual disability coverage to protect both your practice and your family.
There are several different coverage options to consider.
- Long-term disability insurance – This coverage offers protection for an extended period of time, all the way to retirement age, if necessary.
- Own-occupation vs. any-occupation coverage – An own-occupation policy offers protection should you become unable to perform the specific duties of your medical specialty, even if you’re still able to work in a different occupation. In contrast, an any-occupation policy provides benefits only if you cannot perform any job for which you are qualified, based on your education, training and experience.
- Non-cancellable and guaranteed-renewable policies – To ensure your future insurability, it’s important to find a policy that’s non-cancellable and guaranteed-renewable. Non-cancellable policies ensure that the insurance company cannot cancel or modify the terms of coverage as long as you pay your premiums on time.
Guaranteed-renewable policies guarantee your right to renew the policy. While the insurer can increase premiums for an entire class of policies, it cannot increase premiums on an individual.
Important considerations
When selecting disability insurance coverage, it’s important to consider the following.
- What is the definition of disability? Be sure you fully understand what conditions qualify as disabilities under your policy. It’s often wise to select own-occupation coverage to ensure you will be protected if you cannon perform your specific medical specialty.
- What is not covered? It’s important to carefully review any policy exclusions to understand what specific situations or conditions are be covered. Exclusions sometimes include pre-existing conditions and injuries sustained by participating in certain activities.
- What is the policy’s duration? To ensure your family’s long-term financial security, you’ll likely want to choose a policy that offers benefits until you reach retirement age.
- What premiums and riders are available? Be sure to compare the premiums of several different insurers as well as the additional rider benefits available. Riders may include cost-of-living adjustments and future purchase options that provide increasing coverage as your income grows over time.
- What is the reputation of the insurance provider? The long-term security of your policy depends on the insurance company being around when you need access to benefits. That’s why it’s important to thoroughly research the financial stability and reputation of the insurer prior to purchasing a policy.
As a physician, it’s vital that you have adequate disability insurance in place to protect yourself, your family and your practice. There’s no better time than now to put a policy in place. At Scureman and Associates, we specialize in helping physicians identify, implement and maintain disability policies that meet their specific needs. If you’d like help getting started, please schedule a call.
