By now you know that professional disability income protection is what we are all about. What I want to blog about today however is a completely different animal, group long term disability. Yes, that same policy that was given to you by employer or residency program. This is little monster is really misunderstood by most and that makes it extremely scary. Let’s go over some quick points on these plans:
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Group Disability Protection is provided to everyone under employment and treats everyone the same way. And yes that does mean these policies treat you the same as the Janitor.
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Group Disability Policies are not portable, meaning you can’t take the policy with you if you have to move jobs or get feed up with management.
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Group Disability will not let you earn another income and collect disability protection unlike most Specialty Specific True Own Occupation Policies. Whats worse is that a lot of group plans even determine the severity of a disability based on your education. For example if you are a Surgeon with a disability but still have the capacity to flip burgers at McDonlalds, you are not considered disabled and will not collect.
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Group Disability Policies are owned by the employer and can be rescinded and changed at any point in time.
The only real good thing about group is that it is free and can be a complement to a professional specialty specific policy. That said it should never be a supplement. As a Physician you need the peace of mind that an insurance policy will give you the security you need, you do not need to questions if it will provide for you.
