Top carriers for Internal Medicine Physicians
All five carriers below can be written as true own-occupation for most professions. Guardian and Ameritas build it into the base definition, MassMutual and Principal deliver it through their own-occupation rider or definition, and at The Standard it comes through a rider whose availability depends on your occupation class. Your optimal carrier depends on your specific specialty, income structure, and state. We compare all five side-by-side in every analysis.
| Carrier | Product | AM Best rating | Contract strength |
|---|---|---|---|
 | Provider Choice | A++ (Superior) | Strongest contract; best default mental-health |
 | Platinum Advantage | A (Excellent) | Contract clarity |
 | Income Protector | A+ (Superior) | Most flexible underwriting; deep rider menu |
 | Radius Choice | A++ (Superior) | Mutual-company dividends; billing-code own-occ |
 | DInamic Cornerstone | A (Excellent) | Competitive pricing; highest BOE limit |
Provider Choice
- AM Best
- A++ (Superior)
- Strength
- Strongest contract; best default mental-health
Radius Choice
- AM Best
- A++ (Superior)
- Strength
- Mutual-company dividends; billing-code own-occ
Income Protector
- AM Best
- A+ (Superior)
- Strength
- Most flexible underwriting; deep rider menu
Platinum Advantage
- AM Best
- A (Excellent)
- Strength
- Contract clarity
DInamic Cornerstone
- AM Best
- A (Excellent)
- Strength
- Competitive pricing; highest BOE limit
Get a comparison of all five carriers tailored to your specialty
Get a Quote ComparisonHow do carriers classify internists?
Close to the top, and carriers set physician premiums by that class. In the mid-2026 producer guides Guardian files the whole internal-medicine family, from general internists and hospitalists to pathologists, gastroenterologists, and oncologists, under 5M. That placement is fairly new. Internal medicine and family practice both sat at 4M in Guardian's 2022 edition and at 5M by 2025. MassMutual gives internists 5P/1, where its physician rates are lowest. Ameritas uses 6M for the family, Principal 5M, and The Standard 5P, the class it shares across its non-procedural specialists.
The practical result is a low cost for each dollar of monthly benefit. Internal medicine is also one of the physician specialties Seaworthy writes most often. Our physician occupation class grid shows every specialty side by side, including the places where two carriers class the same work differently.
Class sets the price, and the definition of disability decides whether a claim pays. Look for true own-occupation, which keeps benefits coming when you can no longer practice internal medicine even if you earn money in some other role. Each carrier's version is laid out in the physician own-occupation guide.
What does disability insurance cost an internist?
Internists we quote often ask about the $15,000 benefit as well as $10,000, so this table carries both. Prices come from Seaworthy's 2026 quote study at the internal medicine classes above, and the priced design pays to age 65 with true own-occupation, a residual (partial) disability rider, and each carrier's increase rider built in.
| Profile | Monthly benefit | 180-day wait | 180-day wait + inflation protection | 90-day wait + inflation protection |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Male, 35 | $10,000 | $220–$260 | $265–$300 | $310–$350 |
| Female, 35 | $10,000 | $370–$415 | $425–$485 | $500–$570 |
| Male, 35 | $15,000 | $330–$385 | $400–$440 | $470–$515 |
| Female, 35 | $15,000 | $545–$615 | $630–$725 | $740–$850 |
| Male, 45 | $15,000 | $500–$620 | $575–$680 | $680–$800 |
| Female, 45 | $15,000 | $830–$970 | $925–$1,055 | $1,090–$1,240 |
Lowest to highest carrier, monthly, 2026 list price, Texas basis. Figures include residual coverage, the no-cost increase riders, and the own-occupation rider at carriers that sell one separately. They exclude the catastrophic disability rider, and inflation protection appears only where a column says so.
Start with the $15,000 rows. A 35-year-old man buying $15,000 a month on a 180-day wait pays $330 to $385, only about half again the $220 to $260 he would pay for $10,000. With inflation protection and a 90-day wait the $15,000 policy runs $470 to $515. For a 35-year-old woman the 180-day $15,000 policy is $545 to $615, and ten more years of age before applying lifts the man's price to $500 to $620.
In August 2026 Seaworthy illustrated each carrier at three ages (28, 35, and 45) and three benefits ($5,000, $10,000, and $15,000), so every row here is a run point and none needed the interpolation the study uses for in-between ages and benefits. Female figures multiply by each carrier's measured female-to-male ratio, and the 180-day prices are 85% of the 90-day illustrations. Full-benefit-period mental health coverage is in every price, which is the design an internist can choose, and electing the 24-month limitation instead generally costs less where a carrier prices it. For internal medicine next to the procedural specialties, see what physicians pay for disability insurance, and for the general pricing mechanics, the disability insurance cost guide.
What disables an internist?
Illness, mostly. In MassMutual's published physician claims experience spanning 1972 to 2022, musculoskeletal conditions led at 24% of claims, followed by mental disorders at 14%, injury at 11%, and circulatory, nervous-system, and cancer diagnoses behind those. Illness, not injury, caused most of those disabilities, and the average claim in that data lasted about four years. For a specialty whose entire product is clinical reasoning, the tail risks are cognitive, because a condition that erodes memory, processing speed, or judgment ends safe practice across every organ system at once.
At contract time, mental health is where an internist has the most to decide. Our 2026 audit tied about 40% of the physician exclusions in Seaworthy's placed book to mental and nervous history, and internal medicine brings a steady diagnostic and charting load for decades. Internists do have an advantage here. No carrier puts them in the group that must take a 24-month mental and nervous cap, a group built around anesthesiology, emergency medicine, and CRNAs at every carrier and widened at some carriers to pain management and a few more occupations. Outside California the full benefit period is open at each carrier. Guardian offers non-high-risk physicians up to unlimited coverage by choice. Principal's limitation rider can be declined where it is optional. MassMutual sells an endorsement, about 14% extra premium outside California, that removes its cap. Ameritas and The Standard make the cap an election and discount the premium about 10% if you take it. State rules at some carriers narrow this. Guardian, Principal, MassMutual, and The Standard attach the limitation to all California policies, and Principal also attaches it to all New York policies and all single-life Florida policies.
More than 95% of the policies in our placed book carry residual coverage (2026 audit). An internist with a slowly progressing condition tends to shrink the panel or give up inpatient weeks before stopping altogether, and a residual disability rider pays on that lost income alone, so it goes on the policy by default.
Should an internist buy coverage before fellowship?
Yes, if a procedural fellowship is likely, because carriers class many of internal medicine's fellowship destinations less favorably than internal medicine itself. At MassMutual, interventional cardiology sits at 3P while the internist it grew from sits at 5P/1, and invasive versions of cardiology and radiology class below their non-invasive counterparts at more than one carrier.
On a non-cancelable policy, the premium and terms set at issue do not change when your duties later do, so coverage issued during residency or general internal-medicine practice keeps that basis for the life of the contract. That makes the pre-fellowship window a structurally inexpensive entry point. Each of the five carriers we place writes residents and fellows with no income documentation, group LTD is disregarded under those limits, and the resident discounts are meaningful, Guardian at 10% through 180 days past graduation and Principal at 20% through its resident program. As attending or subspecialty pay comes in, a benefit-increase feature adds coverage with no new medical underwriting. Our residents guide covers the per-carrier programs in detail.
Health history points the same way. Seaworthy's 2026 audit found about 26% of placed physician policies issued with a rating or an exclusion. Records tend to lengthen with age, and the median physician in our book was 36 at issue. Because premiums are also set by age at issue, applying before that median generally buys a lower rate on a shorter record.
Is hospital group LTD enough for an internist?
Rarely by itself. Many hospital-employed internists have group long-term disability, and keeping it makes sense, but it covers only part of the risk. The benefit is commonly capped at $10,000 to $15,000 a month and typically figured on base salary. Group benefits are generally taxable if the hospital pays the premium, though who pays and how changes that, which is a question for your tax professional. The own-occupation standard commonly lasts only about the first 24 months of a claim. And the plan generally stops when the job does, a real concern given how often the internists we place move between health systems.
An individual policy reverses each of those limits. You own it, it moves with you, it is sized on your whole documented income, benefits are generally tax-free when you pay the premium yourself, and it can be written true own-occupation. Our physician group vs individual guide runs the after-tax comparison. Some hospital systems also offer guaranteed standard issue coverage, an individual policy with no medical underwriting, which sits in its own category and stacks with an underwritten policy.
How much disability coverage can an internist buy?
Carriers publish issue and participation limits by income rather than one replacement percentage, and at the five carriers we place those ladders run close together. At $300,000 of income an internist can get roughly $13,000 to $13,700 a month, at $500,000 about $18,000, and at $1 million about $28,000. For reference, general internal medicine physicians earned a median $256,560 in May 2025 in Bureau of Labor Statistics data. Most physician classes top out at $30,000 a month, a ceiling MassMutual reached with a 50% increase to its physician classes in 2025, and combined limits run higher alongside group coverage.
Investment income can shrink the number. Carriers typically ignore unearned income up to about half of earned income and offset the benefit above that. Documentation shapes the rest, so 1099, locum, and part-time internists need a carrier that fits the arrangement. Principal writes part-time physicians working 20 to 29 hours a week with at least $40,000 of income, where the usual minimum among the five carriers we place is 30 hours. The benefit sizing guide explains how the limits move as income grows.
When should an internist apply?
During training if possible, and now if not. The pricing case never improves, because premiums are set by age and health at application, and a longer medical record can bring a rating or an exclusion. A five-carrier quote comparison at your actual age, income, and health picture is the step that turns the class row into a premium.