Is Pain or Disability Making You Consider Retiring from Medical Practice? Here’s Why to Seek Legal Consultation First
After decades of demanding work, many physicians and medical professionals eventually confront an uncomfortable reality: chronic pain, illness, or exhaustion is interfering with their ability to practice. Whether you’re an orthopedic surgeon with degenerative disc disease, a dermatologist managing long COVID, or a primary care physician grappling with burnout, you may be considering scaling back …
Doctor Disability Insurance: How to Appeal a Claim Denial
You take out doctor disability insurance so it is there in case you ever need it. Unfortunately, as you might have already experienced with patients’ cases, insurance does not always come through as you expect. Insurers that issue physician specialty-specific disability policies routinely scrutinize—and too often reject—legitimate claims. When a denial stems from administrative errors, …
Doctors, Lawyers, Professionals: Do You Need Specialty-Specific Disability Insurance?
If you’re a physician, lawyer, dentist, or other high-income professional working in a complex field, you shouldn’t go without robust long-term disability insurance coverage. You’ve dedicated countfewer hours to mastering your craft and worked hard to build a certain standard of life for yourself and your family. Without a comprehensive disability insurance policy, however, a …
Do Doctors Need Disability Insurance?
A doctor’s daily responsibilities are physically, mentally, and cognitively demanding. The nature of their work involves being on their feet most of the day, dexterous use of their hands for equipment and procedures, constant communications with patients and colleagues, and even potential exposure to hazardous conditions in their work environments like chemicals, biologics, radiation, and …
When Do Insurers Negotiate Contracts with Healthcare Providers?
How comfortable do you feel with your current provider agreement with your commercial payors? If the answer is anything less than completely satisfied, then you may need to consider negotiating with your commercial payor(s). Health care providers are getting bolder about asking to renegotiate their provider agreements, but it can still be hard to know …
Everything Doctors Should Know About the No Surprises Act
Most physicians, especially those that work in hospital settings, have heard about the No Surprises Act. Many healthcare organizations, including the American Hospital Organization and American Medical Association, initially supported the government’s attempts to limit surprise out-of-network billing. However, a lot has changed. What started out as a consumer-focused initiative to limit surprise medical billing …
Physician Revenue Metrics: Lessons from the Pandemic
We do not need to tell you that the pandemic hit medical practices hard. As fewer patients scheduled appointments and non-essential care was paused, physicians were left with fewer options—and their revenue dropped. According to a 2020 MGMA survey, the average physician-owned practice lost between $78,000 and $175,000 in revenue per full-time doctor in 2019-2020. While …
4 Meaningful Ways to Increase Your Medical Practice’s Revenue
Over the past several years, medical practices (especially primary care practices) have struggled with their revenue streams—and the COVID-19 pandemic accelerated this trend. In an AMA survey, most doctors noted a significant drop in revenue during the pandemic; the average decrease was 32%. Addressing these issues requires a multifaceted approach that embraces both new trends …
“Own Occupation” Disability Insurance Policies: A Guide for Doctors
You have probably heard that doctors and other medical professionals should invest in “own occupation” disability insurance. However, many physicians do not realize that insurers sometimes include loopholes and unfavorable terms in their private disability insurance policies—which are sometimes discovered only after you file for short-term or long-term disability. In this blog, our disability insurance lawyers …
4 Things Doctors Need to Know About Provider-Payer Disputes
Our healthcare environment becomes more complex every year. While your organization may feel comfortable handling some provider-payer issues in-house, many medical groups are discovering that the insurance companies and other payers are becoming more aggressive with cost-cutting tactics. Whether payers are reducing your payments under a “value-based care” model or disputing the necessity of care, …