Disability for Residents
Understand the Risks
By most estimates, your earning potential as a first-year resident is in the millions over the
course of your career. Clearly, an unexpected injury or illness (disability) can potentially
devastate or disrupt your career.
POTENTIAL EARNING POWER UNTIL AGE 67
| Avg. Salary | $180,000/year |
| Age 35 | $5,760,000 |
| Age 45 | $3,960,000 |
Get the Facts
Most residents are often too busy to consider the impact of a career-threatening disability;
however, given the right information and choices, he or she will happily choose to protect his or
her career earnings. In fact, because Reynolds is not affiliated with any single insurance provider
(we are independent and represent all carriers), we can offer you a highly-customized policy that
reflects your personal needs and choices.
The amount of insurance you purchase originally directly affects how much you can purchase in the future.
To begin strategizing, ask yourself these questions:
- What do you expect your income potential to be once you are contracted as an attending?
- How do you combine the base benefit and the future increase benefit to reach the total monthly benefit that will adequately protect your future income?
- What are you comfortable with in terms of your budget?
- Is there a way you can pay a lower premium now, while still a resident, and pay a higher premium once you are an attending physician?
When you are ready to increase your coverage what will the rates be based upon?
Will the costs be based upon the rates at time of initial purchase or will they be based upon the current rate the company charges at the time the additional coverage is purchased?
Residents and fellow are strongly advised to take advantage of the special allowances insurance companies are offering. These include higher benefit amounts, higher future increased amounts coupled with a more lenient, simplified application process. Once you are an attending physician, this will not always be the case.
Additional Information for Residents
- Personal Account on Disability Insurance: Heather Gibbons-Doig, MD
- Long Hours, Little Sleep: Bad Medicine For Physicians-in-Training?
- Substance Abuse, Mental Illness, and Medical Students: The Role of the Americans With Disabilities Act
- Disability Issues in Emergency Physicians
- A Surgeon, A Suture Needle — and Hepatitis C
- From Needle Stick to Cure for Hepatitis
- Female Physicians to See Increase in Premiums for Disability Insurance 2014
- Able to Practice: Physicians with Disabilities Do What It Takes to Thrive
- Sources of Stress for Residents and Recommendations for Programs to Assist Them
- AMA Policies on Resident Physicians and HIV
- Disabilities: Looking Back and Looking Ahead (JAMA)
- Health and Disability Insurance Coverage for Medical Students and Resident Physicians (JAMA)
