A Question of Ethics: When Is It Time to File a Disability Insurance Claim?
The physician considering a disability insurance claim is faced with a difficult decision: is it really time to look after her own health, or should she just keep working through the pain? An article by Richard Gunderman, a Professor at Indiana University’s School of Medicine, in American Medical News’ Ethics Forum argues that, while physicians should not be too preoccupied with their own health, they must also consider the safety of their patients: “As physicians, we bear a duty to recognize our own health-related limitations and take appropriate steps to safeguard those that depend on us.”
On the one hand, a physician’s disability or impairment may be so severe that she honestly doubts her ability to safely care for her patients. She may already be taking fewer shifts, seeking work accommodations, delegating tasks to her colleagues, and struggling to work around her disability. She may genuinely fear that when the pain is at its worst, her patients’ health is at risk.
On the other hand, the mere pursuit of a disability insurance claim can be grueling. Insurance carriers often resort to ruthless tactics to undermine a physician’s credibility and tear holes in legitimate evidence of disability just so they can deny the claim and save a dollar.
To complicate the matter, many physicians have loved ones who depend on their income. The potential for a prolonged disability insurance claim denial—and the resulting financial and emotional distress—can be frightening.
Gunderman suggests a solution: the physician should ask herself if she is still physically able to accomplish the selfless goals that drew her to the profession and commit herself completely to the patients and the community. “If we can position ourselves on the appropriate trajectory toward this higher end,” writes Gunderman, “the lesser goals, including the health of physicians, will find their proper orientation.”
And if the pain makes that impossible, it may be time to pursue a disability insurance claim. The decision may be evidence of deeper commitment to patient care: ”What might seem at first glance an admission of weakness,” says Gunderman, ”turns out to offer powerful testimony to the strength of a physician’s dedication to patients.”
