Looking for ways to increase your disability insurance sales? The physician disability insurance market can be a very successful place to start. The health care field in general is the fastest growing industry in the country, employing almost 17 million Americans. To get started on disability insurance for doctors, narrow your prospecting to physician specialists using these three tips to develop your disability insurance specialty.
1. Growing specialties
According to SKA, a health care marketing company, the fastest growing physician specialties are: Urgent Care (21%), Endocrinology & Metabolism (21%), General Practitioner (20%), Epileptologist, a neurologist specializing in epilepsy, (19%), and Trauma Surgeon (19%). These newly-minted specialists are probably in your area. If you want to target new physicians in the fastest growing fields, start here. Every specialty has an association group, usually with regional chapters. Association pages often have an option to find a local specialist. You’ve just created your list of prospects! Use some of the tips found in Easy LinkedIn Secrets to Grow Your Disability Income Sales to identify people in your network who have a connection to the physician.
2. Return of the internist
For years, the number of internists had been decreasing. Many practicing internists have left the field and new medical school graduates lacked interested in the specialty. That trend is changing. With the rise in the amount of Medicare payments to internists, and a growing respect for the role of the internist as the quarterback of the medical team, physicians are returning to this specialty. Salaries rose 14.5 percent last year with starting salaries averaging $237,000. For the past nine years, Internists have been the second most requested for recruiting purposes. You’ll usually find internists practicing in a group. Making a sale to one physician in the practice can provide an entree to the other physicians. Internal medicine practices increasingly employ physician assistants. PAs earn a median income of $98,180. The field is one of the fastest growing in the health care industry, expected to grow 30 percent in the next eight years. Develop expertise with this profession now before your competitors become wise to this opportunity.
3. Hospitalists
A relatively new category of specializing physicians is the Hospitalist. A growing number of hospitals employ specialized physicians who work only in the hospital. Hours are usually controlled, often seven days on / seven days off. Income can be as much as 25% higher than private practice physicians. Hospitalists are specialized, ranging from internists to neurologists to surgeons. This group represents a unique disability opportunity. Although probably covered by a group disability insurance plan, many will need additional levels of disability insurance. Talk to the hospital’s employee benefit team about adding a supplemental disability insurance plan designed to protect the income of the physicians they employ. The plan can be employer-paid or voluntary and because it is a multi-life case, may be eligible for special pricing and underwriting.
Speaking of specialties, DIS specializes in disability insurance for doctors. If we’ve whetted your appetite, check out our free download, The Best Way to Break Into Professional Markets and check out our tips for presenting disability insurance to a physician. You may also find our Disability Insurance for Doctors toolkit to be invaluable. Contact a DIS representative by phone, 800-898-9641 or request a disability insurance quote.
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