Oncologist Disability Insurance

The most important part of a disability insurance contract is the definition of total disability. The definition of disability is how the insurance company decides what qualifies as a disability. For a medical doctor specializing in Oncology, this definition is paramount.

Berkshire's ProVider Plus disability contract classifies Oncologists as an occupation class 4p. This means that all Oncologists will receive a true own occupation definition of disability for the life of the contract, including Berkshire's graded lifetime benefit extension. The advantage to an Oncologist of this definition is that he or she will not be forced back to work in another job if they can no longer work as an Oncologist. In fact, Berkshire's definition of disability protects your actual specialty.

A true specialty-specific definition of disability is the best choice for physicians in the oncology field, since it protects income in the specialty that they have spent years learning.

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A very important aspect of any disability insurance policy is the residual benefit rider. Since a disability is not always total in nature, it is imperative that the contract cover partial losses of income. In these situations, the disability insurance policy should pay the insured a percentage of their benefit based on their loss of income. For example, if an Oncologist was only able to practice 40% of the time due to a disability, and therefore was only billing for 40% of the procedures that they had before the disability, they would most likely have a loss of income. If we assume that loss to be 60% , they should receive a monthly benefit of 60% of the total amount, or $6,000 per month (assuming a total monthly benefit of $10,000). (Note: Actual situations may vary.)

Provider Plus disability insurance pays residual benefits a little different than most other companies. First, there is no requirement that the insured have a loss of time or duties in order to receive a benefit. For an Oncologist, this can be a major benefit. As any physician will tell you, it takes way too long to get paid by a patient's medical insurance for procedures that are performed. If an Oncologist performs a procedure and then bills the patient's medical insurance, it might take several months to finally get paid on that procedure. Now, if a disability took this physician out of work for a year or two, it is likely that they would have a period of time upon their return to work, where their income was much lower then before they were disabled. In these cases, many insurance companies will not pay any benefits because the physician is back at work full time and performing all the functions of their job. Even though their income is much lower than when they left, they will not be getting paid by the insurance company. With the ProviderPlus contract, an Oncologist who returns to work full time and still suffers a loss of income will continue to receive a monthly benefit.

After the first six months of residual benefits, most policies pay benefits strictly proportionate to the income loss for the particular month in which you claim a residual benefit. We, however, pay based on the average income loss of the proceeding six months. This approach can provide substantially greater benefits to you when you have returned to work and are rebuilding your earnings.

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