Disability Insurance for Radiologists

Your Income Is Worth Protecting

As a radiologist, you have spent several years plus hundreds of thousands of dollars on training and education. You have made an enormous investment in your career that is worth protecting. Unfortunately, a split-second accident or a life-threatening illness can take away the direct reward of your investment, which is your income.

Losing the ability to perform your medical duty can lead to a loss of income either temporarily or permanently. However, having a disability insurance policy which pays you a regular percentage of your income will help you have enough financial backing to weather the storm of the high cost of disability treatment.

Treating Disability Condition Is Costly

According to the National Health Council, around 133 million (40%) of the American population has at least one chronic condition. By 2020, it is estimated that the number will rise to 157 million. The prevalence of these life-threatening diseases accounts for $2.2 trillion or 75% of the spending on healthcare each year. For example, the out-of-pocket amount spent by Americans on cancer on cancer alone annually is around $4 billion. Without a flexible disability insurance policy, living without an income and paying medical bills can be very difficult.

Employer-Provided Policies Offer Limited Coverage

While most of the employers in the medical field provide disability insurance for their employees, the coverage is usually limited and can hardly sustain you if you were to become disabled. Most employer-provided policies are not portable and only cover work-related disability. Apart from that, the benefit amount paid may be insufficient to meet your needs. You need an individually-purchased policy which can be customized according to your needs, medical career status, and lifestyle.

True Own-Occupation Disability Insurance

True own-occupation means that if you are disabled and cannot perform the core elements of your specialty, you will be eligible for a disability benefit from your insurer. As you are receiving benefits, you can still decide to work and earn an income in another medical field. As long as it is not in the radiology specialty, you will continue to get your benefits. This is the most dependable policy for radiologists, as it provides you with the most flexible coverage when disabled.

Transitional Own-Occupation

Just like true own-occupation, a trans-own-occupation pays you benefits if you become disabled and are unable to perform the basic tasks of your radiology specialty regardless of whether you are earning an income from another specialty or profession. However, the only difference is that the insurer begins to limit your benefit the moment the total sum of the income from your new employment plus the disability benefits amount exceeds your initial income pre-disability.

Modified Own-occupation

This policy type pays you disability benefits if you cannot perform your specialty professional duties, but the benefit would stop if you choose to pick up employment in another profession. With modified own occupation, you will have to choose from remaining disabled and being entitled to your benefits, or boing back to another profession and forfeiting the benefits.

Any Occupation

This product is usually offered as an employer-provided policy. It is the most common disability insurance types. Any occupation coverage means you are deemed disabled only if you cannot work in any occupation which you are qualified for.

Before you can get benefit payments from this policy, your insurer will assess your disability condition, and ensure it completely prevents you from doing any of the jobs you are qualified for, not just radiology. Any occupation disability insurance is the least beneficial of all “occupationally-defined” disability insurance, and the concept can sometimes be complex.