Things you need to know about disability insurance

This is a guest post by Donald Brown D.O.

Things you need to know about disability insurance

Your need for disability insurance is greater than your need for life insurance. Most people have no problem purchasing life insurance yet they hesitate to purchase disability insurance. Physicians like anyone else are not invincible. 43% of all people age 40 will experience a long-term disability event before age 65 (JHA Disability Fact Book, 2006)

Without a disability plan in place, will you be able to maintain your standard of living if you are not working? Can your family survive on one income when most families struggle with two people employed? How long before your savings are decimated?

Student loans are a concern for physicians who are just starting out. These loans are not discharged in the event of bankruptcy. Paying them off or expiring are two ways to eliminate them. You are responsible for them even if you are disabled. SallieMae.com states on their web site that loans may be "discharged" if you are disabled. They continue to state that even if you qualify for social security disability (extremely difficult to qualify for) you may not qualify for "discharge", and it will take a minimum of three years due to Federal Regulations, during which time you are still responsible for the debt.

Society of Disabled Healthcare Professionals

I'm working with several people to informally launch a new website that will be an online portal and a resource for disabled healthcare professionals. For now, we're informally calling it the "Society of Disabled Healthcare Professionals" and our goal is to make it into a non-profit organization.

You can visit the website here: http://www.DisabledHealthProfessionals.org

If you'd like to get involved, please contact me. In the meanwhile, I hope you will help me spread the word about the Society of Disabled Healthcare Professionals.

American Society for Handicapped Physicians (ASHP)

I'm trying to help several people get more information about the American Society for Handicapped Physicians (ASHP). Unfortunately, this organization does not currently have a website, so I'm having some difficulty reaching anyone within the ASHP. I tried the Yahoo group, and no luck.  If anyone has any contacts within the American Society for Handicapped Physicians, please contact me. Thank you.

Disabled physicians can still work non-clinical jobs

Recently, I've been speaking to several disabled physicians. I've been reminding them that they may be able to work a non-clinical job and still collect disability. This ultimately depends on the type of disability insurance you have. Some disabled physicians stop looking for any type of work because they think they may not be able to collect their disability if they start working in any capacity. You have to check your policy to determine what type of insurance you carry.

If you're disabled but you'd still like to contribute to the medical community, there are many things you could potentially do. Computing technology continues to improve and modern computers are now very easy to use for many disabled individuals. Voice recognition software has gotten very sophisticated (did you know that Microsoft Vista has voice recognition built into the operating system?). There are many different types of keyboards and mice. Some prefer pen-based input and they are using Tablet PCs to do their work. Others are simply dictating and having their words transcribed.

Non-clinical job opportunities for disabled physicians obviously depend on your type of disability. Consider a few of these options:

• Medical writing and communications (maybe even some form of journalism)
  
• Professional and consumer health education
  
• Medical consulting on the phone and on the Internet
• Teaching and tutoring (there are many medical students who could use some help)
• Project management
• Clinical research
• Case reviews for insurance companies
• Venture capital and market research
• Health information technology
• Recruiting other healthcare professionals (most of this is done by phone and e-mail)
  

There are obviously many other non-clinical jobs, but I just wanted to get some wheels moving. Perhaps you want the flexibility to work from home. As long as you have a phone, an Internet connection, and a computer, you can probably do most of your work right there. To read a bit more about some of the options listed above, I encourage you to start with: Non-Clinical Medical Opportunities for Physicians and Other Clinicians