Immunity to the business and politics of medicine
One of the biggest complaints physicians across specialties have is that they don't get to spend enough time doing what they were trained to do - provide direct patient care. Instead, doctors in private practices, and even those who are employed full-time in large groups, clinics and hospitals, expend a great deal of energy on non-clinical activities. Enjoying relative immunity to the business and politics of medicine may be one of the most attractive benefits of practicing locum tenens. Here are seven things that locum tenens physicians don't have to worry about.
1. Reimbursement. The amount that primary care physicians are paid to see Medicare patients barely covers the cost of delivering care. In some instances, doctors actually lose money on this patient population. A number of practitioners have "opted out" of the system entirely after concluded that they simply could not afford to see these patients. Many of those to still accept seniors severely limit the number of patients on the program they'll see. The picture is just as bleak for Medicaid reimbursement, and not much better for many private insurance carriers. Because locum tenens provider are paid by the hour, shift, or day, reimbursement is not something they have to concern themselves with. They turn in their time sheets and wait for a check to appear in their mailbox or a deposit to be made automatically to their bank account.
2. Practice overhead. As third-party reimbursement remains static or declines, the cost of running a medical office open just keeps going up. Rent or lease payments, utilities, staff salaries, malpractice insurance, and technology expenses are, by and large, fixed costs that must be paid regardless of whether the doctor is paid $20 or $200 to see a patient. Locum tenens physicians do not analyze profit and loss statements, calculate overhead percentages, or wonder if there will be enough left over for them to take home a paycheck after everything and everyone else has been paid each month.
3. Marketing. Way back when, physicians would never have considered "marketing" themselves. In today's more competitive environment, new physicians in particular must take steps to make it known that they are available to provide services. It's the rare doctor who can honestly say they enjoy promoting themselves. Physicians who practice locum tenens simply show up and see the patients who come to the office, clinic, or hospital for care. The only "marketing" they do involves practicing good medicine and being flexible and easy to work with in order to continue landing the best engagements in the best locations.
4. Staffing. Some of the most challenging aspects of operating a medical practice are related to hiring, training, disciplining, and terminating employees. Locum tenens physicians never have to review a resume, conduct an interview, do a performance review, or fire an employee. In addition, someone else pays for staff benefits, mediates squabbles in the office, and finds a replacement when the back office assistant calls in sick.
5. Malpractice insurance. Locum tenens physicians, of course, must have professional liability insurance. What they don't have to worry about is the ever-increasing cost of coverage because it's provided for them as part of their agreement with the agencies they sign on with.
6. Meetings. Services on hospital committees - infection control, credentials, or utilization review, for example - is often expected of physicians on a medical staff. With the exception of very long-term assignment situations, locum tenens doctors are rarely asked to participate in these activities. That said, some temporarily placed physicians who are interested in this level of collaboration do volunteer to serve if they are in a location long enough to make a contribution.
7. Medical staff politics. If you've ever sat through hospital committee or department meetings, or I've you've hung around the physicians' lounge having coffee, you know that the inner workings of a medical staff are complex and that conflict is not uncommon. Doctors get into turf battles with one another, the medical staff finds themselves at odds with hospital administration over one thing or another, or the peer review process becomes touchy. Locum tenens providers, because they have no long-term agenda, can watch all of this from the sidelines without becoming embroiled in the action.
If making yourself largely immune to the business and politics of medicine sounds good, contact a NALTO (nalto.org) agency recruiter to find out more. It is possible to focus on what you were trained to do - deliver high quality care - and have a satisfying career that's uncomplicated by non-clinical minutia.
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