As with most insurances, coverage underwriting by an insurance company includes an assessment of risk by individual unique characteristics and generalized characteristics, both based on aggregated data. In the world of disability insurance underwriting, specific risks involved include the prospective insured’s medical history and prior conditions, surgeries and impairments, the general characteristics and the physical and cognitive demands of their occupation.
Policies vary by occupation and purported risk associated with occupational disability. Every job has an occupational class for the purposes of underwriting for disability insurance. Jobs range from low risk to higher risk. A construction worker has more risk than an office worker. The occupational determines premiums and pricing and may impact what other policy features and add on riders may be available. It typically impacts the maximum benefit offered.
The lowest risk jobs are often so broad in scope that they provide low risk underwriting to higher risk occupations—especially for dentists. This makes no sense based upon our experiences over the past 24 years. In our practice we see many dentists who have become disabled. The array of conditions is broad but usually involves upper extremity impairments.
Dentists require fine motor skills and proprioception to the 10th of a millimeter to perform their occupation effectively and safely. Any impact upon their precision creates an environment where they should not be practicing as they risk harming patients. We have seen many instances where dentists suffering compromised fine motor skills have been forced to retire when faced with the loss of their abilities.
Given the repetitive nature of the work performed and the static positioning needed to successfully perform dental procedures, many dentists suffer from upper extremity problems, either with their cervical spine or hands and their fine motor skills.
Read More: How to Prepare and File a Long Term Disability Insurance Claim: A Step-by-Step Guide
Despite this, we have seen the underwriting of dentists be considered in a similar occupational class to actuaries (ironically), lawyers and architects. Yet, the incidence of impairment resulting from their work is much greater and does not correlate with the claim underwriting consideration.
We speculate that occurs because of the competitive market for these insureds. Otherwise, why would the insurance companies incur this risk in the underwriting process? In our experience, despite high incidences of disabilities, dentists often secure more favorable rates.
Dentists should always seek to procure as much disability insurance coverage as can be underwritten, as they tend to utilize this coverage at a higher level than most occupational classes.
And while most claims on average are approximately 2.6 years in duration, claims for dentists seem to be claims that do not end, and are often paid through the maximum benefit period (sometimes lifetime). Newfield Law Group represents dentists, oral surgeons, periodontists, endodontists, prosthodontists, pediatric dentists, and others in dental practices in disability claims, from preparing a claim before it is submitted to navigating buy-outs and litigation.
