Essential business and financial blueprints for Locum Tenens professionals. Covers 1099 taxes, malpractice tail insurance, and contract negotiation.
Locum tenens — Latin for “to hold the place” — is temporary physician coverage that fills gaps at hospitals, clinics, and health systems across the country. For physicians, it means working as an independent contractor on an assignment-by-assignment basis, with control over schedule, location, and specialty focus that permanent employment rarely allows. The U.S. locum…
Most locum tenens contracts are written by agency or facility legal teams whose job is to protect the agency or facility — not you. That is not a criticism; it is just how contracts work. The problem is that physicians are trained to read clinical data, not contract language, and the clauses that carry the…
Locum tenens physicians operating as 1099 independent contractors have access to a significant range of business deductions that employed physicians cannot claim. The tradeoff for that flexibility is self-employment tax, multi-state filing complexity, and the need to document everything correctly. This guide covers the core deductions available to 1099 locum physicians in 2026 — what…
Locum tenens physicians who work across multiple states in a single year face a tax filing obligation that most employed physicians never encounter — and that most generic tax guides do not adequately address. Every state where you physically perform clinical work creates a potential state income tax obligation, regardless of where you live, where…
One of the most significant financial advantages available to locum tenens physicians is the ability to contribute substantially more to tax-advantaged retirement accounts than their employed counterparts. As a 1099 independent contractor, you are both the employee and the employer — which means you can make contributions from both sides of that relationship, dramatically increasing…
Choosing a locum tenens agency is one of the most consequential decisions in your locum career — and most physicians make it with almost no framework for evaluation. Agencies are not interchangeable. They differ in margin structure, specialty focus, contract terms, credentialing speed, and how they treat physicians when an assignment goes wrong. This guide…
The housing and meal stipend is one of the most financially significant components of a locum tenens compensation package — and one of the most misunderstood. When structured correctly and supported by the right facts, stipends are tax-free, which can add tens of thousands of dollars in effective annual compensation relative to an equivalent taxable…
The Interstate Medical Licensure Compact is the most practical tool available to locum physicians for expanding assignment access and negotiating leverage. This guide covers how the IMLC works, which states participate as of 2026, what the application process actually involves, and how to use multi-state licensure strategically in locum work. Editorial note: IMLC participation and…
A locum tenens contract review is not optional — it is the single step between a good assignment and an expensive mistake. This guide covers what to read, what to negotiate, and what to walk away from before you sign any locum agreement. Editorial note: This article is for educational purposes only and does not…
For locum physicians earning income as 1099 independent contractors, the S-Corp election is one of the most consequential tax decisions available — and one of the most misunderstood. This guide breaks down exactly how the S-Corp election works for locum physicians, what the 2026 numbers actually look like, and how to determine whether the structure…