The HIV-positive physician and disability insurance.
Occupational exposure to HIV is becoming a daily hazard in many emergency departments. Emergency physicians who are protected by disability insurance policies are likely to believe that if they are unable to continue working because of HIV-positive status, their disability policies will provide them with a source of income. Unfortunately, analysis of case law regarding claims under disability policies shows that the law is unlikely to consider an asymptomatic, HIV-positive physician disabled for purposes of payments under disability policies. Therefore, it is necessary for emergency physicians to make sure this issue is resolved before buying and relying on a disability policy so that an anticipated safety net will be operative over the full range of hazards that emergency physicians face.
Lavely
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Department of Public Health, Yale School of Medicine, New Haven, Connecticut.
D003625:Data Collection; D004185:Disability Evaluation; D006233:Persons with Disabilities / Q000331:legislation & jurisprudence*; D004635:Emergency Medicine; D015658:HIV Infections / Q000191:economics*; D006801:Humans; D007341:Insurance / Q000331:legislation & jurisprudence*; D008505:Medical Staff, Hospital / Q000331:legislation & jurisprudence*; D009784:Occupational Diseases / Q000191:economics*; D016134:Organizational Policy; D014481:United States