If you’re not offering disability insurance for doctors, now is a good time to get in the game. The healthcare industry continues to see robust growth despite the lagging economy. Private physician practices alone are adding tens of thousands of jobs to their ranks evrey year.
With millions of aging baby boomers and plenty of uninsured being covered under federal healthcare reform, the shortage of doctors will keep them in high demand. With that kind of growth and demand for quality practitioners, disability insurance for doctors is a market with high potential.
In fact, doctors are among the best consumers of disability insurance, largely because they have great income earning potential, and this type of insurance coverage is even more vital for them than for those in many other professions:
- Doctors have more to lose: Physicians typically earn $200,000 a year or more, and in many cases their lifestyles have expanded so that they can’t easily afford a significant income reduction.
- Doctors have more invested in their careers: Saddled with $150,000 – $200,000 in debt coming out of medical school, doctors already have a substantial investment they want to protect out of the gate. If they become disabled, that debt doesn’t just go away.
- Doctors insure an entire career: Do the math – An earning potential of $200,000 per year multiplied by 30 years equates to a lifetime earning potential of 6 million dollars! That earning power is an asset that warrants serious protection.
- Doctors know the risk first-hand: It’s not hard to convince doctors that the risk of disability is real and imminent. They see their patients become disabled due to unexpected illness and injury every day.
- Doctors obtain broader coverage: Own-occupation disability insurance protects a physician’s ability to work in his or her medical specialty even if he or she is only partially disabled and is still able to work as a primary care provider.
Whether you’re marketing disability insurance to individual physicians or tapping the lucrative association market, keep these things in mind when selling disability insurance for doctors:
- Doctors have specialized professions and need specialized contracts. The variety, complexity, and specialized nature of the medical profession require equally specialized contract provisions and claims administration. DIS can help you customize a plan for your client.
- Physicians earn higher incomes, so they need richer benefits. Talk to us about ways to meet doctors’ high income needs and to explore group plan opportunities to also protect other key employees in their offices. If your physician client owns the firm, it’s also a good idea to explore business overhead expense to enhance protection levels.
- Physicians are looking for the best coverage, not the lowest rate. They’re generally less concerned with the price and more concerned with the value of the benefits. Explain that low rates usually mean fewer and more restrictive benefits, vague definitions, and hidden contract loopholes that could present claim problems for a highly-paid physician specialist.
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