CompHealth Review 2026: Pros, Cons, and What Physicians Need to Know

CompHealth is the largest locum tenens staffing agency in the United States by most measures — broad specialty coverage, a nationwide facility network, and decades of market presence. For locum physicians, that scale is both an asset and a liability. CompHealth can open doors that smaller agencies cannot. It can also operate with the institutional friction and rate structures that come with being the dominant player in a market where transparency is not the default. This review covers what physicians need to know before working with CompHealth — ownership, contract terms, malpractice structure, and how to negotiate effectively with an agency this size.

1. Who CompHealth Is

CompHealth is a staffing brand within CHG Healthcare, a large healthcare workforce company headquartered in Midvale, Utah. CHG acquired CompHealth through private equity in 2012 and has operated it as its primary locum tenens brand since. CHG Healthcare also operates Weatherby Healthcare (another major locum tenens agency), RNnetwork (travel nursing), Global Medical Staffing, and Locumstory.com among other brands. The corporate structure matters for physicians to understand: CompHealth is not an independent agency — it is one division of a large, private-equity-backed healthcare staffing conglomerate with multiple competing revenue interests.

CHG Healthcare’s ownership of both CompHealth and Locumstory.com creates a specific conflict of interest worth naming directly. Locumstory presents itself as an informational resource for locum physicians — guides, salary data, career advice — but it is produced by and for a company whose primary business is physician staffing. The information Locumstory publishes serves CHG’s commercial interests. Physicians who rely on Locumstory as an independent source of locum tenens market intelligence are reading agency-controlled content without necessarily knowing it.

CompHealth’s scale is genuine. The agency covers physician, NP, PA, CRNA, therapy, pharmacy, and other healthcare roles across all 50 states. Specialty coverage spans emergency medicine, anesthesiology, cardiology, hospitalist, psychiatry, radiology, surgery, and dozens of subspecialties. For locum physicians in high-demand specialties seeking broad geographic access, CompHealth’s footprint is a real advantage — the agency has facility relationships across markets that smaller regional agencies cannot match.

2. Specialties and Geographic Coverage

CompHealth’s specialty and geographic coverage is among the broadest of any locum tenens agency. The agency actively markets assignments across physician specialties including emergency medicine, hospitalist, psychiatry, radiology, anesthesiology, cardiology, family medicine, internal medicine, general surgery, and numerous subspecialties. APP coverage includes NPs, PAs, and CRNAs. Non-physician coverage extends to therapy, pharmacy, and medical laboratory roles.

Geographic coverage is nationwide with no stated regional concentration. CompHealth’s facility network includes academic medical centers, community hospitals, critical access hospitals, VA facilities, Indian Health Service facilities, and outpatient settings across all 50 states. The breadth is a genuine differentiator — physicians targeting specific states or markets where smaller agencies have thin coverage may find CompHealth’s footprint the widest available option.

The practical implication of scale: CompHealth has more active assignments across more specialties and geographies than most competitors. That is an asset for physicians in specialties with uneven assignment distribution — a rural radiology locum or a subspecialty surgeon targeting frontier states will likely find CompHealth has more options than a niche regional agency. The trade-off is that scale also means more standardized processes, more recruiter variability, and less individual negotiating flexibility than a smaller agency focused on a tighter specialty or regional niche.

3. Contract Terms to Know

Malpractice coverage — claims-made is the default: CompHealth states that in most cases it obtains a claims-made professional liability policy with limits of $1 million per occurrence and $3 million aggregate per provider. This is important to understand before signing. A claims-made policy covers incidents that are both reported and claimed during the active policy period — once the policy lapses or the assignment ends, coverage for incidents during the assignment period may not extend forward without a tail policy.

CompHealth’s public materials do not describe a universal tail coverage guarantee. Tail obligations depend on the specific assignment, contract, and whether CompHealth or the client facility is providing the coverage — the agency acknowledges that coverage can vary by state or contract, and that sometimes the hospital or facility provides the malpractice coverage rather than CompHealth directly. For physicians, this means the malpractice structure of each assignment must be reviewed individually before signing. Do not assume tail coverage is included — ask explicitly, get the answer in writing, and understand what happens to your coverage after the assignment ends.

CompHealth’s coverage also includes some defense costs for board actions, but excludes late notice situations, out-of-scope work, intentional acts, and criminal conduct. The policy applies to claims arising from work on a CompHealth assignment — work performed outside the assignment scope may not be covered. For a full explanation of claims-made versus occurrence policies and tail coverage mechanics, see the Locum Tenens Malpractice Insurance guide.

Non-compete and exclusivity clauses: CompHealth does not publish a standard universal non-compete or exclusivity clause in its public materials. Assignment contract terms are deal-specific and not disclosed publicly before signing. What is known from physician community reports and general locum tenens contract practice is that some agency agreements include restrictions on working directly with facilities after an assignment ends, or exclusivity provisions during the assignment period. The agency’s own public content recommends that physicians review and negotiate termination and repayment provisions — an implicit acknowledgment that these terms exist and matter.

Before signing any CompHealth assignment agreement, have the contract reviewed by a physician contract attorney. Pay specific attention to: any post-assignment restriction on working with the facility directly, any exclusivity clause preventing simultaneous work with other agencies, and any repayment provision triggered by early termination. These are the most physician-adverse terms commonly found in locum agency agreements and they are negotiable — particularly with an agency of CompHealth’s size that has ongoing placement volume at stake. For a full breakdown of what to look for in locum contracts, see the Locum Tenens Contract Review guide.

Cancellation policy: CompHealth does not publish a fixed physician-facing cancellation policy with a standard notice period or guaranteed pay formula. Assignment cancellation terms are contract-specific. Physicians report variable experiences with last-minute assignment cancellations — a recurring complaint in public review platform data. Before accepting a CompHealth assignment, clarify the cancellation terms in writing: what notice period the facility must give, whether you receive guaranteed pay for canceled shifts above a certain notice threshold, and what your obligations are if you need to cancel. These terms should be in the assignment agreement, not left to verbal reassurance from a recruiter.

4. Pay and Transparency

CompHealth, like all locum tenens agencies, operates on a bill rate model. The agency bills facilities a gross hourly rate and pays physicians a portion of that rate — the spread funds recruiter compensation, overhead, malpractice coverage, benefits administration, and agency profit. CompHealth does not publicly disclose its bill rates or the percentage of the bill rate that goes to physician pay.

The industry norm for locum tenens agencies is that physicians receive roughly 50-70% of the bill rate, with the remainder retained by the agency. CompHealth’s specific split is not publicly disclosed and will vary by specialty, market, and assignment. Physicians who want to understand where their compensation sits relative to the bill rate can ask their recruiter directly — agencies are not legally required to disclose the bill rate, but some will provide it in negotiation. For a detailed explanation of how bill rates work and what agencies retain, see the Locum Tenens Bill Rate Breakdown guide.

Public physician feedback on CompHealth pay rates is mixed. Recurring themes in review platform data include reports of rates below what physicians believe the market will bear, limited transparency about total compensation structure, and variability between recruiters in willingness to negotiate. These are patterns reported by physicians rather than verified benchmarks — individual experiences vary significantly by specialty, market, and recruiter relationship.

CompHealth’s scale does create one genuine pay advantage: the agency has facility relationships that smaller agencies do not, which means access to assignments that may not be available elsewhere. For physicians in specialties or markets where assignment scarcity is a real constraint, CompHealth’s breadth can produce assignment access that offsets a lower rate relative to what a specialist agency might negotiate in a tighter market.

5. Recruiter Experience

Physician experience with CompHealth recruiters is highly variable — a consistent pattern in public review data that reflects the reality of a large agency with hundreds of recruiters at different experience levels and with different specialty focuses. The most positive physician accounts describe recruiters who are responsive, proactive about assignment matching, helpful with credentialing logistics, and transparent about compensation. The most negative accounts describe poor communication, mismatched assignments, last-minute cancellations without adequate notice, and difficulty reaching the same recruiter consistently.

CompHealth’s size means recruiter quality is not uniform. The agency’s recruiter incentive structure — like all placement agencies — rewards placements, which creates pressure to fill assignments that may not be optimal matches for the physician. Physicians who clearly define their assignment criteria upfront, hold firm on non-negotiable terms, and do not allow themselves to be rushed into unsuitable placements generally report better outcomes.

Practical advice: ask your recruiter directly how long they have been with CompHealth and what specialties they focus on. A recruiter with deep experience in your specialty and established relationships with the facilities they’re pitching is worth more than a general-practice recruiter covering a wide territory. If you are not getting responsive, knowledgeable service, you can request a different recruiter within the agency or supplement with a specialty-focused agency for comparison.

6. Who CompHealth Is Best For

CompHealth is best suited for physicians who value breadth over specialization. Specific situations where CompHealth is a strong fit:

Physicians entering locum tenens for the first time who need access to a wide range of assignment options while they figure out their preferred specialty, setting, and geographic preferences. CompHealth’s breadth allows for exploration that a niche agency cannot provide.

Physicians targeting frontier or rural markets where smaller agencies have thin facility relationships. CompHealth’s nationwide footprint is most differentiated in markets where assignment density is low — rural states, frontier counties, critical access hospital networks.

Physicians in broad-demand specialties — hospitalist, family medicine, internal medicine, emergency medicine — where assignment volume is high and the agency relationship matters less than assignment access and logistics support.

CompHealth is a weaker fit for:

Subspecialists seeking maximum rate negotiation in competitive markets where a specialty-focused agency has deeper facility relationships and more leverage to negotiate. A specialist agency focused exclusively on radiology or anesthesiology, for example, may produce better rates and more suitable assignments than CompHealth’s general-coverage recruiter.

Physicians who prioritize rate transparency and bill rate disclosure. CompHealth’s scale and margin structure do not favor maximum transparency on compensation. Physicians who want to know exactly what the facility is paying and negotiate from that number are better served by agencies or direct facility relationships that provide that visibility.

7. Negotiation Levers

Use CompHealth’s scale as a starting point, not an ending point: CompHealth’s breadth makes it a useful first call for exploring the assignment market — but it should rarely be your only agency relationship. Physicians who work exclusively with one agency give up the market intelligence and competitive pressure that multiple agency relationships provide. Use CompHealth to understand what’s available, then use that information in conversations with specialty-focused agencies or direct facility contacts.

Ask about the bill rate: CompHealth recruiters are not required to disclose the bill rate, but asking directly signals that you understand how the model works and are not a passive participant in the compensation negotiation. Some recruiters will share the figure — particularly for physicians who are otherwise strong candidates — and knowing where you sit relative to the bill rate is the most important piece of information in any locum compensation negotiation.

Negotiate cancellation terms before accepting: Given the pattern of last-minute cancellation complaints in physician review data, negotiate explicit cancellation protections into your assignment agreement before signing. A guaranteed pay provision for assignments canceled within 48-72 hours of the start date is reasonable to request and worth pressing for. An agency with CompHealth’s facility volume has more flexibility to absorb this than it may initially suggest.

Push back on post-assignment restrictions: Any clause that restricts you from working directly with a facility after an assignment ends — sometimes called a non-circumvention or direct-placement restriction — has real financial value to the agency and real cost to you. These are negotiable. If you plan to build a long-term relationship with a specific facility, address this before accepting the initial assignment, not after it ends.

Tail coverage — get it in writing: Given that CompHealth’s default is claims-made rather than occurrence coverage, and that tail obligations are assignment-specific, confirm in writing before the assignment starts: who is providing the malpractice coverage, whether it is claims-made or occurrence, what the tail coverage terms are if claims-made, and what happens to coverage if the assignment ends early. Do not leave this to verbal confirmation from a recruiter.

Multiple agency strategy: The most financially sophisticated locum physicians do not rely on a single agency. Running two or three agency relationships simultaneously — CompHealth for breadth plus one or two specialty or regional agencies for depth — produces better market intelligence, more assignment options, and competitive rate pressure that a single-agency relationship cannot generate. For guidance on evaluating agencies generally, see the How to Evaluate a Locum Tenens Agency guide.