As a national insurance broker, Experien Insurance Services (Experien) assists doctors, dentists, vets and others an alternative to dealing with insurers on their own. Experien have helped medical professionals and other clients receive insurance claim payments of over $90 million for illness, injury and death.

With so much experience in helping with claims, Experien share some recent insights on the topic of how to protect your finances when it’s you that becomes the patient.

Helping a medical professional suffering from long COVID

We are seeing some claims come in for this condition. The claims apply to income protection (IP) insurance.

A young and previously healthy 36-year-old medical practitioner caught COVID-19 and did not recover after 4 weeks. He was diagnosed with long COVID, causing serious issues including extreme fatigue and tiredness, problems with memory and concentration, severe headaches and migraines and more. Doctors have told him this can continue for three to six months.

Being self-employed and running two practices, he has had to pay others to do his job and will rely on his IP insurance whilst he is sick. The client will receive a monthly benefit of well over $10,000 per month if he remains unwell and unable to work, once the claim is approved.

The power of regular reviews

Some people will take out disability or life insurance and then not have the offer of regular, ongoing complimentary reviews. But reviews can be beneficial for many reasons such as if circumstances change and the amount and type of cover should change.

Plus, there are other benefits of offering such as service, which is core to the proposition of Experien. We recently undertook a review of the cover for an existing client who is a gynaecologist. This person is in his 30s and mentioned that he broke his ankle in a soccer match during the year. Because he was able to work in a reduced capacity from the injury, he didn’t think to let us know to make a claim. But, thanks to the discussion during a regular review, we explained that in the circumstance of his injury and given the particular policy he has, an IP insurance claim was possible where he received a benefit of $20,000 as a tax-free amount. He was, of course, delighted to get this money, which was initially unforeseen.

No sick leave for the self-employed medical professional

A client in Victoria, who is a self-employed Dental Specialist, called us recently. She went for a run and unfortunately tripped and fell, injuring her shoulder. Later that evening she had painful discomfort and so took herself to emergency only to discover she had fractured her right shoulder. Unlike those who may work in office-based roles that are often sedentary, the work required by a dentist means that an injury like this leads to a complete loss of the ability to generate income. Many dentists are also self-employed, so paid sick leave is not a luxury. She has IP insurance and will be paid at least $20,300, which will help to replace lost income whilst she recovers.

Experien Insurance Services (Experien) is a national insurance brokerage firm. We research the market to help try find better coverage, pricing or other factors. If you engage us for a review, then we will not charge you if don't decide to use us any further. A review is complimentary and without any obligations. We can do all the work for you to manage any changes. 


If you are seeking life or disability insurance advice, do not hesitate to reach out to us any time via your Credabl consultant.