The Guardian Life Insurance Company of America (Guardian) is making a special offer to the Residents and Fellows training at SUNY Downstate. You may obtain Individual disability insurance coverage through Guardian on a Guaranteed Standard Issue (GSI) basis. This is available at any time during your residency or fellowship and up to 90 days after you complete your training.

Guardian is an independent company, is not an official SUNY Downstate vendor, and is not associated with SUNY Downstate or authorized, sponsored, or endorsed by SUNY Downstate.

• A Definition of Disability - Just for Physicians!
  • Not Available Anywhere Else In The Industry
• This program gives you the opportunity to protect your income if you become disabled, even if you have pre-existing conditions that would normally prevent you from obtaining coverage. In addition, the policy is a personally owned individual disability insurance policy that is portable.

ADDITIONAL BENEFITS TO GUARANTEED ISSUE DISABILITY INSURANCE

• In addition to pre-existing medical conditions, Special GSI policies can be issued without consideration of potentially dangerous avocational activities such as rock climbing, motor sports, scuba diving, skydiving, and martial arts.
• Height and Weight (build) are not taken into consideration.
• Optional Catastrophic Disability Benefits (CAT) and Student Loan Riders (SLR) are available.
• This unique benefit is available to individuals who have not been declined or given a modified offer of individual disability insurance through a carrier other than Guardian more than nine months after their hire date or in the past five years, whichever is shorter.

A DEFINITION JUST FOR PHYSICIANS

Some of the strongest, most flexible protection a physician can get — this is not available anywhere else in the industry!

Our enhanced definition starts with our strong True Own-Occupation Definition of Total Disability. If totally disabled, it provides a physician with the flexibility to be gainfully employed, in some instances even in their own practice, and still receive total disability benefits. Then, we add a straightforward, easy-to-understand formula to qualify for benefits. It’s based on the source of your earnings and provides more ways to qualify for total disability benefits.

We’ll consider you totally disabled if more than 50% of your income is from:

• Hands-on patient care and, solely because of injury or illness, you can no longer perform hands-on patient care; or
• Performing surgical procedures and, solely because of injury or illness, you can no longer perform surgical procedures.

If you have limited your occupation to the performance of the material and substantial duties of a single medical specialty, we will deem that specialty to be your occupation. If you don’t qualify for benefits under the source-of-earnings formula above, then we’ll look at your key duties, including those you were performing in your medical specialty at the time your disability began, to assess whether you qualify.

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION