Hi, I'm Billy Gwaltney and this is the CYA podcast. This show is for the physician who understands the importance of protecting everything you've worked so hard to achieve. Each week I'll bring you tips and advice to help you cut through the clutter and misinformation and show you exactly what you need to preserve your income and way of life. If you're ready to achieve the peace of mind that only financial security can bring let's get started.
(00:28): Welcome to today's episode of the cover, your assets podcast. This is Billy, Gwaltney your host, and I'm really excited to be with you today. Excited to cover today's topic. I get this question at times from nonsurgical specialists. And the question is, if I'm not a surgeon, do I really need specialty own occupation, disability coverage? And I think that's a great question, like answering that question, because I think it's totally logical to ask. And the way I answer that is when I talk with young physicians across the country, in regards to their disability coverage, the first point I tend to make is that the vast majority of disabilities, statistically speaking, are not injuries they're illnesses. So it's very common for most people to think about disability coverage and go, well, I need it in case I'm in an auto accident or I needed, I need hand insurance in case I'm injured.
(01:25): That's what surgeons sometimes refer to disability. Coverage is hand insurance and an oncologist may say, well, if I injure my hand, I can still do oncology. So I don't need this specialty specific coverage and hand injuries and auto accidents. Those things can definitely happen, but statistically they're much less likely to happen than an illness. And over 90% of all disabilities or musculoskeletal disorders, soft tissue diseases. So they're illnesses not injuries. And so let's give an example and I use this a lot with clients. Let's say you have a herniated disc in your back and you can't go to work. And so the literally the million dollar question is, are you now disabled? Okay. If you're a surgeon and you can't stand and go to work, yes, you're probably disabled. If you have one of the true specialty on occupation contracts, let's talk about if you're an oncologist or if you're a pediatrician or someone that doesn't do procedures.
(02:27): If you have a herniated disc in your back and you can't go to work, are you disabled? Well, the question then becomes, is it material for you to physically show up at work? Is it important for your job? Is that an expectation that your employer has, that you are going to physically show up at work and be able to move around, go around, do clinic and function at a, at a somewhat, maybe high pace or at least average pace? The answer is that this is probably just as likely to be true for, for the oncologist or the non, the, the noninvasive specialty as it is for the surgeon. And so if it is material for you to physically show up to work and you can't then with the top true specialty disability contracts, the answer is likely that yes, you're disabled, even if you're not a surgeon.
(03:16): And what's important is that you're now disabled. You could then stay at home and, you know, do a different job, consult, write a book, you know, do telemedicine and something else and make an unlimited income doing that other occupation. And it not impact your disability benefit if you've done it correctly. And that's an important definition and important realization to have that the true specialty coverage is not just for the surgeon. Another factor in this type of question is other coverage outside of the true specialty contracts. And so if you work for a hospital system or an employer that offers a group long-term disability policy, and it covers say 60% up to 15,000 a month of your, of your salary because of adverse selection. And I've covered this in other podcasts, but I want to summarize it here real quick. In case you haven't heard those because of adverse selection, which means that these policies have to cover unhealthy employees with the same policy that covers healthy employees.
(04:25): As a result of that is called adverse selection. Insurance companies will water down those definitions, which means those definitions are more restrictive. And so that same scenario of having a herniated disc in your back and can't go to work. Are you disabled well with a group long-term disability policy? It can get muddy really quick. It's not a given that the answer's yes, the answer may be a flat out no, and you may have to file an appeal and, and it just gets, it gets complicated and it gets contentious and it's not automatic that that benefit is going to be there. And unfortunately in that kind of scenario, it may not be where, okay, you'll get some of it, just not all of it. It's often a scenario of if, if they're not going to pay, they're not going to pay you anything. And that can be difficult to, to manage if you don't know that until the time of claim is too late to do anything about it at that point.
(05:19): And so if you are a non-surgical specialty, having the true specialty definition is an important component to, to make sure this included in your coverage. If that example that I just gave is something that, that happens to you or something like that. It's also important from a residual disability standpoint, if you're partially disabled and you suffer a 15 or 20% loss of income or more, and you're, you're just not able to, you can still do your specialty sometimes, but you can't do it. Full-Time is your policy going to pay well, if you have the true specialty contract and you're structured properly in an includes, a residual benefit, the answer is yes, it's going to pay another component of coverage as a recovery benefit. If you medically recover from, from either a full disability or a partial disability, and you go back to work, but you're not as productive as you used to be.
(06:12): And your income does not recover to what it used to be before you were disabled. If you've structured your true specialty contract, your private coverage correctly, then a recovery benefit would continue to pay you benefits. And so all of those aspects and definitions are important to be sure are included in your coverage, even if you're a non-surgical specialty. And so I do think that's a very legitimate question to ask. Hopefully hopeful that you're hearing this answer and going, okay. Yes. If I'm not a surgical specialty, I still need to make sure I have the best coverage. Get it while I'm young, get it while I'm healthy. Get it when I'm in training and I can get the maximum discounts because it's still going to serve me well over the course of my career. Even if I'm not a surgeon, hope you found this helpful. There's more to it. I'll probably think of three or four things to mention after this conversation. Maybe I'll do another episode would be would welcome the opportunity to chat with you. Anytime. Feel free to text me. My number is 7 0 4 2 7 0 2 3 7 6 again, 7 0 4 2 7 0 2 3 7 6. I'd be happy to discuss your situation in more detail until next time. This is Billy Gwaltney. I'm thankful for your time and hope you have a great rest of the day.
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