This page contains a Flash digital edition of a book.
TMAIT What Physicians Need to Know About Insurance


Whatever your stage in life, there are certain things, as a physician, you’ll want to consider when it comes to protecting your health, your family, and your practice.


While not a comprehensive list, here are a few important things to consider at various stages of your life and career.


Just Starting Out As a physician at the beginning of your career, having insurance to help you protect the life you’re building is important. The following coverages can help you feel protected during this important time in life:


Long-term disability policy


with “own-occupation” Long-term disability insurance can help you pay your mortgage, interest on school loans, and everyday expenses if you experience a disability and are unable to work. Make sure your policy includes an “own-occupation” feature to ensure you’ll receive monthly benefits throughout the life of your policy until you are well enough to work in your medical specialty, even if you can work at another kind of job.


Life insurance If you have loved ones who depend on you financially, make sure they’re protected if something were to happen to you. If you purchase life insurance when you’re young and in good health, the premiums may be more affordable and you can lock in lower rates.


Maternity coverage Before you’re expecting a child, make sure your health insurance policy includes maternity coverage. Once a baby is on the way, it’s difficult to get maternity coverage if your plan doesn’t already have it. Also, many individual insurance policies don’t offer maternity coverage, or offer it as optional coverage with potentially higher premiums.


Opening a Practice At some point, you may want to open your own practice. In addition to group health insurance policies for you, your family, and your employees, there are several other insurance plans you may want to have in place to protect your business. These include:


Key-person life and long-term


disability The death or long-term disability of a key individual can leave a gap in your practice’s expertise and lead to potential loss of income while a suitable replacement is identified. Life or long- term disability benefits purchased for that individual can be used to maintain the solvency of the organization and assure creditors of the continuity of the business.


Office overhead expense With office overhead expense (OOE) insurance, you can help protect your practice and your employees in the event you suffer a disabling injury or illness. OOE insurance pays your actual eligible monthly overhead expenses, up to the benefit amount you select.


Buy-sell agreements A life-insurance policy can be structured to fund a “buy-sell” agreement.


This would ensure that the remaining partners in the practice have the funds to buy the practice interests of a deceased owner at a previously agreed-upon price. Long-term disability, accident insurance, and critical-illness policies can also be structured to have a buy-sell agreement in the unfortunate event that one of your physician partners becomes too ill or injured to contribute to the practice.


Preparing for


Retirement As you near retirement, review your insurance to figure out what policy you


no longer need, and what you may want to add, to help you feel secure.


Life insurance Some people let their term life insurance lapse when their children are grown. However, you may want to keep a life insurance policy if you’re supporting a spouse, parents, adult disabled children, or others who depend on you financially.


Also, if you have a term life insurance policy, you may want to convert it to a permanent policy. Permanent life insurance policies accrue cash value from which you can withdraw or borrow for the rest of your life. Find out if your policy is convertible, and if your premium will be increased if you convert it to a permanent policy.


Long-term disability and long-


term care insurance Many long-term disability policies terminate when you retire or will be terminated at a predetermined age as specified in the policy.


As you near retirement, you may choose to purchase a long-term care policy instead of long-term disability insurance. Talk to a financial or insurance advisor before you purchase long-term care insurance, however, to find out if you need it.


Talk to a TMAIT


Advisor For an assessment of your current coverage, or to customize your insurance portfolio to meet your needs, talk with a TMAIT Insurance Advisor. TMAIT has been helping physicians with their insurance needs since 1955. Our Advisors know physicians — and they know insurance. Call today at (800) 880-8181.


Page 1  |  Page 2  |  Page 3  |  Page 4  |  Page 5  |  Page 6  |  Page 7  |  Page 8  |  Page 9  |  Page 10  |  Page 11  |  Page 12  |  Page 13  |  Page 14  |  Page 15  |  Page 16  |  Page 17  |  Page 18  |  Page 19  |  Page 20  |  Page 21  |  Page 22  |  Page 23  |  Page 24  |  Page 25  |  Page 26  |  Page 27  |  Page 28  |  Page 29  |  Page 30  |  Page 31