Disability insurance

[Vishenka69]

Re: Disability insurance

Does his work based coverage allow him to receive the other benefits on top of the work coverage?

Nellie, I'm not sure about this, I haven't read through the whole thing. Guardian pays no matter what, which is why we went with them. Turns out they even honor the contract if you practice in another country.

Re: Disability insurance

That is what I found out from Guardian too. They don't count SS disability against payments.

It is worth looking into, especially if you are paying for that work-based coverage. I missed that on DH's residency based coverage. It didn't cost a whole lot and we only did a small amount but it was nearly worthless because of his personally held policy (that was only $1,000/month, i think the work-based exceeded it by a couple hundred). We only did it for a year. Of course I caught it a few months in and couldn't drop it.

[Vishenka69]

Re: Disability insurance

We're not paying for DH's work provided coverage, it's part of the general benefits package. Our insurance guy read it more thoroughly and said that it wasn't bad but had 180 day wait and is obviously contingent on DH still being with the group. We did 90 day on the Guardian one. I can't imagine going 6 months with no income. He also told us that the wait period can always be adjusted up or down (i.e. we can move it to 180 after the house is paid off, etc.).

Since DH's disability only covers until 65 I'm not sure how SS plays into it. But we were told that he can do anything other than his occupation (lecture, consult, etc.) and still get paid.

Re: Disability insurance

It is social security for disability not the payments after 65 (or whatever retirement age you want it to start).

I can't remember the cut-off, but after a year (I think???) my MIL was eligible for disability payments through social security. Once those started, her employer based coverage decreased by that amount. After a year or two (can't remember that either) of being disabled according to Social Security, she was eligible for Medicare as a disabled person, not a retiree.

[DCJenn]

Re: Disability insurance

Social Security does a crappy job of letting people know how to differentiate between the various programs- SSA, SSI and SSDI. The SSDI is the one that pays if you're declared disabled and unable to work. SSI is what some of my clients were able to get through their parents and SSA is what we all get when/if we ever get old enough to 'officially' retire. I think I have to be 70 to claim it.

(and you can't not claim Social Security, did you know that?)

Jenn

Re: Disability insurance

According to this http://www.ssa.gov/dibplan/dqualify2.htm, you have to have worked long enough and recently enough to qualify (at a job that pays into social security). In addition, the disability has to last longer than a year or result in death and can't be partial or short term (I think it is a year of the disability to qualify).

Vishenka, you might want to check out the employer based coverage just so you know. A lot of group policies have exclusions for both SS disability and privately held policies. Even if he isn't paying for it, it is worth knowing from a worst case scenario planning standpoint because the privately held policy might cancel out any employer based benefits.

[DCJenn]

Re: Disability insurance

Nellie is right about the 'terms' of disability. Now how about this for stupid: I had to prove every year that my clients were 'still' mentally retarded. Like, you'd think they'd have a section to check on there- "incurable condition". I used to ask the same guy every year for every client, "OK, do you know of a cure? Because I don't." and every year he didn't laugh.

Imagine the cost savings of just letting the people with MR stay people with MR and not sending the "are you still retarded forms" every year.

Jenn

Re: Disability insurance

To continue your hijack...we have to fill out the paperwork and have the physician complete the paperwork for MIL again for her employer based disability. Seriously, if they could just take a look at her once, they could save everyone a lot of time and not ask for this any more. She continues to qualify for SSI, why not use that as proof? If they have any ideas about how to make her better, great. Like DH said, what kind of work do they think she can do when she would need someone to feed her during her lunch break? (knock on wood, SSI determined her to be permanently disabled and keep paying the benefit).

*end of tangent*

[planet]

Re: Disability insurance

Posted since there's a deadline.

Heidi (and anyone else looking into DI right now),

I talked to one of the AMA ins guys today and was informed that one of the most popular products, the Berkshire/Guardian Provider Plus (the one Nellie got), is being replaced this Friday, 7/11, by a new one. An application has to be initiated and into the 'home office, by the end of the week. I'm having a compare/contrast sent and will post it so you can see if it is worth moving fast or waiting. Oh, and there is an option for graded payments. The screening is getting more stringent every year so it seems.

Re: Disability insurance

Hmm, I wonder if we can get a better rate on the same coverage through the AMA. That doesn't give us much time.

[Vanquisher]

Re: Disability insurance

Ummm, aaaaaack! Yes, please.

[planet]

Re: Disability insurance

Still waiting for the docs by email. If I can't post easily then I'll email them to you.

Heidi, I sent you an email with the current ProVider Plus plan. The secretary was one royal PITA. I couldn't open the pdf file for the new plan and she got all indignant on me, you know, because she could open it so she couldn't understand why it wouldn't work for me. It isn't that hard to copy and paste into word. Anyways, I'll pester her again tomorrow or go directly to the agent. Summary seems to be though that the FIO will drop from 11K to 8K under the new plan. FIO is the rider that lets you up the amount you are insured when you move from resident to attending, so it will be a monthly benefit of 8K after this week. That's how I understand it.

[Vishenka69]

Re: Disability insurance

I just spoke to our insurance guy about the changes to the Guardian policy. He said the changes only affect the retirement plan protection and that the income protection clauses are staying the same. The change to the retirement plan is that if you take a job while on disability they'll continue to pay disability but won't be depositing anymore money into the pension plan.

We're still going with Guardian, as there isn't any other plan out there that matches their coverage.

[planet]

Re: Disability insurance

What I've learned on this end, is that the new plan is not all that much different from the old one and is even a little cheaper for set (vs graded) payments.

But...and it would be great to have comfimation of this...Guardian does not do discounts. So going through AMA or other organizations might save you an agent fee/reduce commission, but the plan itself won't have a discount. Also the *big* benefit of getting insurance sooner rather than later is supposed to be being able to not have to get the medical screeening/requalify later (when doing the FIO) and pay less due to age. Premiums would still go up with coverage and age when going from resident to attending. Guardian is supposed to be the most comprehensive out there, but many people don't medically qualify. This is from the agent working with the AMA and MMS.

We will go with Guardian. They have a good COL rider.

[Vanquisher]

Re: Disability insurance

Thank you Janet and Nellie and Sylvia for all helping me get the message in time. I really appreciate it!