Question: Would you purchase insurance that protects just half of your house? What about half your car? Or your family?
Most likely you would not. So why would you settle for insurance coverage that might only protect half of your finances?
How did you fare during this year’s cold and flu season? A cold or bout with the flu can slow you down - perhaps you missed a few days of work - but before long, you were back to your routine of seeing patients and taking care of your practice. Minor illnesses create minor inconvenience, and these are overcome quickly. But if you are a practice owner or partner, what would happen to you if you became seriously ill or injured? Without the proper protection, these can create major stumbling blocks that are able to destroy your practice and your financial livelihood.
“That won’t happen to me.” Though no one wants to dwell on the possibility, succumbing to a serious illness or injury is alarmingly common.
For example, during the 2017 calendar year in Texas, 17,571 people sustained serious injuries in vehicle crashes*. (This figures to be 2 people each hour!) As an independent physician, what would happen if you were the injured party and you could not practice medicine for several months? Think about your practice...Who would see your patients? How would you cover salaries for your employees? How would you pay your lease and utilities?
Everyone knows the principle behind a backup generator. When the electricity goes down, the generator powers on. In the event of an outage, your equipment stays up and running. Nothing skips a beat. Business goes on uninterrupted.
As an independent physician and business owner, you have big responsibilities. You are first and foremost responsible for the care of your patients. Then there is the time, energy, and significant expense involved in running your office.
As an independent or partner in a practice, you’ve invested time, energy and money in building and maintaining a successful practice. In the event that you become seriously ill or injured and cannot work, you would need to cover your share of the business expenses to avoid a financial setback.
Resolute, industrious, tenacious: physicians who operate a solo or small independent practice can well be described in this way. As the health insurance landscape becomes increasingly uncertain, and regulatory demands and the complexity of administrative tasks increases, small and solo practices face many challenges. Still, these practice owners see tremendous value in maintaining their autonomy and nurturing patient connections. At TMA Insurance Trust, we believe that they deserve special respect and support, and offer it in the form of tailored, comprehensive coverage.
Many tools are made to serve only one purpose. For example, you know that a blade is designed to cut. But there are many types of specialized knives, and for the most part, they aren’t meant to do double duty. You wouldn’t use a surgeon’s scalpel to slice vegetables for dinner.
In a similar vein, there are two different types of disability insurance that serve different purposes; for comprehensive protection, you should consider having both.
The cost of running a practice seems to rise each year. Depending on the type of medical practice, overhead expenses may be a significant percentage of your practice’s total revenue, estimated to be as much as 60 percent.*
