Group disability insurance is for employees or members of organizations with no customization options. It is coverage offered by employers, and often paid for by the employer, but it doesn't provide the ability to take the coverage with you if you change employers. Your residency or fellowship group policy from WellSpan will not stay with you when you change employers. The same will be true if you change employers as an attending physician. Group long-term disability coverage has plenty of shortfalls, including no True Own Occupation definition of total disability, benefits being taxable when collected, offset of benefits if collecting other sources of income while disabled - such as Social Security benefits or Workers' Compensation, and it is not Guaranteed Renewable or Noncancelable - meaning your employer can cancel or change the benefits offered at any time. However, all employees qualify for non-contributory group disability insurance since there is no underwriting.

Individual 'fully underwritten' disability insurance is customizable and offers portability and individual ownership of the policy. However, what makes most individual disability insurance 'fully underwritten' is that you will need to be approved through medical underwriting. When you apply for individual fully underwritten disability insurance, you could either be approved with no penalties, approved but with exclusions or other modifications, such as price increase or reduction of benefits, or declined and not offered a policy. However, even those with no major pre-existing conditions could receive a modified offer or denial for situations such as self-prescribing medication, recent medication changes, noncompliance with medical advice or treatment, etc.

Guaranteed Standard Issue (GSI) disability insurance aims to bridge the gap, while providing customization (though not to the extent of individual "fully underwritten" disability insurance). Similar to individual disability insurance, these plans are portable, Guaranteed Renewable, and NonCancelable, and have the strongest definition of total disability for physicians - True Own Occupation. This GSI option is available to all residents and fellows through DrDisabilityQuotes.com, exclusively at WellSpan. GSI is a great option if you're searching for individual disability insurance!