Ten Things You Won’t Miss when You Work a Locum Tenens Assignment

If you work locum tenens assignments on a regular basis, you know the freedom that comes along with the locum lifestyle. If you are new to locums or haven’t worked locums in awhile let me take this opportunity to remind you of the top 10 things you will NOT miss when you work locums:

1. Low or no reimbursement – When you work a locum assignment, you won’t have to worry about getting reimbursed for your work. You won’t have to wonder how much the insurance company or Medicare will pay you for seeing that patient. Because locums are paid by the hour, day or by the shift, you simply turn in your timesheet or invoice and you get paid in full. In fact, locums are paid well overall, and if you are willing to take call, or work weekends, holidays or the night shift, your paycheck will really look attractive.

Locum Assignment

2. High practice operating costs– The hard costs of running your own practice today just keep skyrocketing: staff salaries, office rent, utilities, phones, technology, malpractice insurance, lab costs, office equipment, you name it. Add to that the fact that reimbursements are down and sometimes there isn’t much left at the end of the month. Locums don’t have to stress about whether or not they can pay their staff or whether they can keep the office lights on. Locums just go to work, see patients and collect a paycheck.

 

3. Costly malpractice insurance – As we all know, the cost of malpractice insurance keeps on rising. Depending on your specialty and where you live, it can be one of the largest costs a physician takes on. Physicians who work locum assignments must have malpractice insurance too, but the cost of the coverage is usually paid for by the staffing agency placing the physician in the assignment. If a locum decides not to work through an agency, there are daily-rate malpractice insurance options where coverage is available for only the days worked, making it a lot more cost-effective.

4. Office staff or hospital politics – If you’ve been part of a medical office or hospital staff, you know just how crazy the internal politics can be. There are other physicians jockeying for position, hassles from hospital administration, and departmental issues that are always cropping up. As a locum, you have the luxury of not being drawn in to all the hoopla going on around you. At the end of the day, you can go home to a “politics-free” zone.

Coming on November 5th… more things you won’t miss when you work a locum assignment.