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.*

If you can’t work, how will your practice?

It takes a lot of planning, dedication, time and money to make a medical practice work efficiently and profitably. But if a disability should strike, you might be unable to work for an extended period of time. Without the right disability insurance, everything you have worked so hard to achieve could be lost.

One of the many points of pride for Texas is the number of independent physicians who practice in the Lone Star State. Although an increasing number of physicians across the country are leaving private practice to become hospital employees, many Texas physicians are able to retain their independence. According to the 2016 TMA Physician survey, 26% of those surveyed are in solo practice, another 22% are group practice owners who are co-owners or shareholders and 5% are in partnerships.*

Like many physicians, you may believe that your individual long-term disability insurance and savings would help protect you, if you were unable to work due to an illness or injury. But individual disability benefits are designed to cover your personal and family expenses, not pay overhead expenses for your practice.

As Texans, we treasure our independence, and it shows. In Texas, 63% of physicians are independent, either in a solo or small practice of no more than three physicians. But as the saying goes, ‘responsibility is the price of freedom.’ The burden of financial responsibility can be a heavy one for physicians, especially independent or solo practitioners.

Medical practice owners have a great deal of overhead expenses for which they are responsible. In fact, according to the 2014 MGMA Cost Survey Report, practice operating expenses range from 50% to over 80% of total medical revenue. Additionally, Modern Medicine cited rising operational costs as one of the top 15 challenges facing physicians in 2015. So, what happens to the practice you’ve built if you became disabled?