VA Disability Interaction With Disability Insurance Q&A
Someone emailed me and asked these questions, which I thought others could benefit from reading:
“How active should military doctors be about maximizing disability percentage at military separation? I think many military doctors view the disability payments as a sign of weakness or something to avoid (for example me I’m zero %), but the financial benefits of the high percentage disability are remarkable.
Are you aware of any resources that give tips to active duty doing what they need to do (documentation etc.) to ensure they are awarded a disability percentage commensurate with their disability? For doctors who plan to apply for private disability insurance (DI) after military separation, does a military disability rating hurt that application?”
Here was my answer:
“I think everyone should try to maximize their VA disability, but I don’t know how it might affect DI as a civilian. I CCed DI4MDs.com, and they’ll know.
I know service organizations assist with VA claims:
https://www.dav.org/get-help-now/va-benefits-help/
https://www.woundedwarriorproject.org/programs/benefits-services
https://www.vfw.org/assistance/va-claims-separation-benefits“
Here is what DI4MDs.com said:
“This is an excellent question and one that can create a problem and cause a loss of entitled benefits if not strategized for properly.
The main issues are military disability benefits are not based on a physician’s entire salary and a military physician will earn substantially more as a civilian and will need a higher level of disability insurance to protect that income. I agree with Joel that you should maximize your VA disability because any condition that would qualify for VA disability will be excluded with private disability insurance companies and may even result in a declination. Also, insurance companies have issue and participation limits for disability insurance and any VA disability benefits received will reduce dollar for dollar the amount of individual disability insurance you would otherwise qualify for based on income. A general rule is you can obtain 50% of your income with disability insurance minus any benefits received such as the VA. This is the calculation even though benefits for the condition you are receiving VA Disability for would be excluded.
A simple solution which we utilize to solve this lack of coverage is to obtain a disability policy while the military physician is young and healthy, usually early in their career, and include an increase option on the policy that guarantees when they need to increase coverage in the future such as when they complete their Military service, they can do so and have any conditions that have developed during their military career insured.
Be happy to assist any military physicians and thank you all for your service.”
USUHS Faculty News/Updates and Reappointments
Please see the message below from USU:
Good day to everyone.
This is a busy time of year for many of us! I am using this newly created email group to alert ALL NATIONAL FACULTY about relevant items for those who hold faculty appointments at USUHS SOM (School of Medicine). I have attached the quarterly newsletter and if you are not getting these, and are interested, these are on our faculty development self-service site. These are published quarterly and have been since 2016. You can see older newsletters there as well. Use this link — https://fac-dev.usuhs.edu – it is under the newsletter tab on the left. Few special items below:
a) The SOM is looking for interested faculty to serve as a National Faculty Coach to USU students rotating at core clerkship sites. We have a need for faculty coaches at the following sites: Keesler AFB, Wright-Patterson Medical Center, William Beaumont AMC (El Paso, TX), USAF Medical Center (Offut AFB), Martin Army Community Hospital (Ft. Moore), Eglin AFB, Eisenhower AMC (Ft. Gordon, GA), Jacksonville Naval Hospital, and Naval Hospital Portsmouth.
Serving in this role requires one day of in-person training at the USU campus in Bethesda, MD in September and a commitment to serve in this role at your site until June 2025. Please reach out to Ms. Amy Laczek (amy.laczek@usuhs.edu) with questions.
Interested faculty should submit their names HERE by 31 May 2024.
b) We are doing our faculty development needs assessment. Please use this link below and reach back to me or thomas.mcfate@usuhs.edu if you have trouble. If you have trouble with the link you can also try the QR code attached as well.
c) If you need to change your contact info in the upcoming months please use the following link so my office can make needed updates.
https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1O1YFTl4uGDbgmKo1YZiwjellw1aSr-8jDV0coDdvAnM/edit
d) 2024 IS A REAPPOINTMENT YEAR
Written in our promotion document, every 3 years regardless of the date of your initial appointment, all faculty need to sign a reappointment letter. Furthermore you have 30 days only to return this or your appointment will be automatically inactivated. This will occur June/July of this year. What do you need to do now: make sure your email stays current! All letters will go to your WORK email (which is the primary email logged here). I will send more current info throughout this time to alert you which departments have been sent. We have >6700 faculty. Departments have varied means to reach people. I, personally, will send instructions and reminders along the way to minimize confusion. At any time once I send the notification the first letters have been emailed, you are concerned, please reach back to me. Many of you are teaching daily our students and I do not want you to lose your appointment. For those of you episodically teaching, it may be more difficult to stay connected.
Thank you all for being part of USU – we couldn’t accomplish what we do without the team of people not in Bethesda.
Jessica
—
Jessica T. Servey, MD, MHPE, FAAFP
COL(ret), USAF
Professor of Family Medicine
Associate Dean for Faculty Affairs
Pronouns: she/her/hers
Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences
Bethesda, MD 20814
Office: 301-295-9470, D3013
email: jessica.servey@usuhs.edu
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