How Healthcare Reform Affects Locum Tenens Physicians and Healthcare Jobs

Politicians seem to have moved on to the next all-consuming topic (how to increase the nation’s borrowing level and decrease the deficit), leaving behind the last all-consuming subject of healthcare reform, which dominated debate in 2009 and early 2010. While a lot of the political and media attention on healthcare reform dissipated after President Obama signed the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA), the legislation’s impact on America’s healthcare industry has the potential to be large. This is especially true for locum tenens physicians and the medical staffing industry.

First and foremost, the PPACA will lead to a dramatic increase in the size of the American healthcare industry, as expansions in Medicare and Medicaid, as well as a mandate that all individuals obtain health insurance, mean that millions of uninsured/underinsured Americans will now have health insurance. Initially this led some to conclude that a decline was in store for the locum tenens physician staffing industry, as more underinsured people sought standard medical attention instead of care at an emergency room, which is a main employer of locum tenens physicians.

However, a more thorough analysis of the PPACA concludes that while care at the emergency room may decline as more people gain insurance, expansions in funding to Medicare and Medicaid will mean many healthcare facilities across the country will see an expansion in their customer population, which will mean a substantial increase in the hiring of locum tenens physicians to serve the influx of new clients (1).

While the number of temporary-to-permanent positions should generally increase in the healthcare industry as a result of the PPACA, the highest demand for locum tenens physicians will come from rural areas. Indeed, the PPACA provides billions of dollars to community healthcare facilities located in areas of the country with a shortage of available medical services, and rural areas will be chief among regions receiving this funding given the relative shortage of healthcare providers within rural America (1).

Prior to the passage of the PPACA many rural medical facilities didn’t have the resources to staff a healthcare recruiting office; now many will be able to advertise needed physician jobs and fill essential vacancies with locum tenens physicians, whose salaries can often be higher than that of a regular physician due to the temporary nature of their employment. While before many rural medical facilities faced a daunting task of recruiting physicians to undesirable locations with low wages, many will now be flush with cash and able to meet locum tenens physicians’ salary demands.

Ultimately, the precise effects of the PPACA are unknown, as court challenges could derail final implementation of the law while major reforms within the law (e.g. the individual mandate to buy insurance) that will affect the locum tenens physician staffing industry most do not begin until 2014. One thing is clear: Should the legislation go into full effect, millions more people will get health insurance and access to standard health care, which should mean more locum tenens physician jobs available, especially in rural areas of the country.

(1) http://www.modernmedicine.com/modernmedicine/article/articleDetail.jsp?id=672641&sk=&date=&pageID=2