Divorce is tough. And for doctors, parts can be easier and parts can be much tougher. As a physician, maintaining financial stability during this time is essential for your personal well-being and for the continuity of your medical practice. We are all human and divorce happens to doctors. While the emotional toll can be very tough, the financial toll is always present. The key for many doctors is to augment finances during a divorce and explore how solutions like Claims Concierge, working with an accountant, and shift work can provide the extra income needed to meet your financial obligations on timelines that may now be pressing.
Step 1: Create a Comprehensive Financial Plan
When going through a divorce, it's crucial to reassess your financial situation and develop a comprehensive plan to address your new financial realities. Consult with your accountant or a financial advisor who understands the unique financial needs of physicians, and the nuances of medical professional corps, and who can work together with you to create a budget that accommodates your post-divorce expenses, timelines and obligations.
Step 2: Utilize Shift Work to Increase Income
A second living space, another car, unforeseen professional fees… they all add up. One common way to increase your income during this challenging time is to take on additional shift work. Many hospitals and clinics are in need of physicians who can fill in during busy periods or cover for colleagues on leave. This additional work can provide a valuable source of supplementary income, making it easier to meet your financial obligations, such as car payments, tuition fees, or other expenses. If you have a full-time role at a community-based clinic, or your practice doesn’t often or easily have shift work that pays quickly, consider asking the clinic to adopt a Cash Concierge type of solution, which pays credit card and Medicare claims within 48 hours.
Step 3: Implement a Claims Concierge and Cash Concierge Solution
Efficient medical billing can have a significant impact on your practice's revenue. By implementing a claims concierge solution, you can streamline your billing process, ensuring that claims are submitted accurately and promptly. This can lead to fewer denied claims and faster payments, which in turn can help you maintain financial stability during your divorce.
A claims concierge solution can also free up your time by handling administrative tasks related to billing and collections, allowing you to focus on patient care or take on additional shift work to increase your income.
A Cash Concierge solution would work with a program like Cash Concierge, ensuring that your revenues are paid into a group or your solo account within 48 hours of batch upload. This means you can work a shift Monday and see the revenue as quickly as Thursday. Clinics may offer this solution to entice new physicians to join the group or to inspire physicians to pick up extra shifts in a practice that ordinarily pays claims once a month. Managers and clinic owners would generally rather a doctor work at their practice than a competitor, so there’s a natural reason they would want to adopt the program and pay physicians sooner.
Step 4: Review and Adjust Your Investments
A divorce may require you to reevaluate your investment strategy, as your financial goals and risk tolerance may have changed. Work with your financial advisor to review your current investments and make any necessary adjustments to better align with your new financial situation. Pay special attention to insurance-based products and investments, which may be an ideal investment for a doctor during a divorce or challenging financial time.
Step 5: Update Your Estate Plan
During a divorce, it's essential to update your estate plan to reflect your new circumstances. This may include updating your will, designating new beneficiaries, and revising your powers of attorney for personal care and property. Ensuring your estate plan is up-to-date can provide peace of mind and help protect your financial legacy.
Step 6: Maintain an Emergency Fund
An emergency fund is a crucial aspect of financial planning, particularly during times of uncertainty like divorce. Aim to have three to six months' worth of living expenses in a readily accessible account to help you weather any unexpected financial challenges.
Lastly, and this isn’t a formal step, ensuring friends or support are nearby is important too. This is a challenging time and we all react differently to these kinds of pressures. Taking care of oneself in a way that is positive can only help manage the challenges day by day. The effort put into this will turn into positive habits that can only help over the long term.