There are a lot of questions that are involved when it comes to doing locum tenens (temporary) contract work. SMART Physician Recruiting’s mission is to educate both our partners and our physicians on how the locum tenens process works for each party.
We want SMART to be the ideal partner to provide these services for your group, hospital or system. Below are common questions asked and our answers and how we provide this service both to our partners and the physicians and physician extenders
A: SMART Physician Recruiting pays directly for your flight, car and hotel. It is all billed directly to SMART. We also have a travel coordinator that works directly with you to book your preferences.
A: SMART strongly suggests you create and LLC if you are going to do locum tenens work for more than 100 hours of work per year. The tax advantages are significant when creating your own PC, LLC or S-corp. You can have more deductions from the IRS. Those include a 401k plan of your own, business vehicle that can be written off taxable income as well.
A: SMART pays all our locums or independent contractors as the IRS defines how independent contractors should be compensated. The wage with no taxes or FICA taken out of it is paid to the physician or provider. This wage or compensation amount that was negotiated and agreed upon between the physician and SMART is what is paid to the physician or provider.
A: SMART Physician Recruiting provides your medical malpractice insurance unless the client or candidate require to use their own policy. SMART has a nationwide policy that works in all 50 states. We internally credential all our physicians and through that process we determine their acceptance to be used on our malpractice insurance. We then create a claims made policy with the proper coverage limits required by our client and submit them the certificate of insurance. SMART is responsible for the tail coverage and is in compliance each year to provide that tail with our carrier.
A: This question is often asked by our physicians and providers and is likely the most frustrating part of the locum tenens process. We are still at a point in American healthcare that the credentialing process is not standardized and thus credentialing is time consuming and labor intensive. Typically our assignments start between 30-90 days from the agreed upon confirmation or commitment of the assignment.
After the assignment terms are agreed upon by all parties the process for credentialing begins. SMART has a dedicated team of licensing and credentialing specialists who work hand in hand with our physicians and providers. Our credentialing specialists collect all of the necessary documents needed for medical staff credentialing and they meticulously pre-fill all applications for our physicians. After the applications are completed and signed the SMART team works directly with our client or the hospital medical staff office and insures that the credentialing process is streamlined and efficient. Our team will assist your hospital medical staff office with verifications, collecting references and any other documents needed by the facility to properly approve credentials. It’s an arduous and time consuming process but a value added service that our team is proud to handle and provide that service.
