Author: MedCare Staffing

California is Paying Off Medical School Student Debt

California has recently made a big move to help squash the growing physician shortage.

The Golden State is offering to pay off all medical school debt of physicians who have pledged to spend 30% of their time helping Medi-Cal patients for at least five years. California has around $340 million budgeted for the repayment program. While this pledge might mean a lower starting salary, it helps to eliminate thousands of dollars of medical school debt. They also have a chance to make an impact on those in their community who are less fortunate.

The program is making huge steps towards fighting the shortage of health professionals in the state. The leading cause of their shortage is due to the fact that the state’s health care program for the poor has quickly outpaced the number of available physicians that accept those patients.

According to the California Future Health Workforce Commission, more than 60% of California’s medical students left the state in 2017 for their schooling. The California Commission has proposed a plan worth $3 billion that will run its course over the next ten years to help address the looming healthcare crisis.

With the strides that California is making to help with the growing shortage of physicians, they are genuinely making an impact. With this growing opportunity for medical students, there will be more chances available to them. More medical schools in California are increasing their incoming class sizes to help counteract the growing shortage, which is, in turn, offering many more students an affordable education in the state. And with the pledge to work with lower-income patients, these medical students have the opportunity to impact their community positively.

Who are we? MedCare Staffing is a small, veteran-owned, family-oriented team. We start every day with gratitude because we LOVE what we do! We are a team on a mission to make a positive difference in the lives of our clients and providers.

What we do: We place Physicians, Dentists & Advanced Practitioners in Locum Tenens, Contract Positions and Permanent Jobs

To contact MedCare Staffing, call 888.474.3380 or visit or website by clicking here!

February 5, 2020
5 Telemedicine Tools You Need

When working as a telemedicine provider, you often have to change a few things in your exam room to create the perfect virtual exam room. While proper lighting and what not to wear on camera are great places to start, there are many more tips and tricks you’ll need to make your dive into telemedicine a success. We have compiled a list of five different types of equipment you’ll need to help provide your remote patients with the best care possible.

1. A Good Quality Webcam

While a webcam is not technically considered telemedicine equipment, excellent video quality that comes with a good webcam can make the difference between a successful and unsuccessful virtual visit. Not only does a high-quality video present a professional image to patients, but it helps to ensure a more accurate assessment of the patient and ensure clear communication. For those facilities that have multiple telemedicine rooms, a higher-end consumer-grade webcam may be expensive but is an overall worth-it expense. Not all telemedicine consultations require such high-quality video, but those that do can benefit from a good webcam, such as a dermatologist.

2. Reliable High-Speed Internet

Once you’ve chosen your webcam, it’s time to check on your internet connectivity. Internet speed and bandwidth are crucial to both delivering data to and receiving data from patients. To ensure that your internet is both reliable and capable of supporting telemedicine, check with your service provider and see if they can provide you with the bandwidth you’ll need. Your internet provider should be able to configure your network correctly, so it works best with the ‘two-way’ traffic that telemedicine calls require. The influx of uploading and downloading that is necessary when video conferencing requires a sufficient network to support it. Your internet provider should be able to give you solutions that will help you to maintain a higher level of network reliability without spending enormous amounts of money on networking equipment and services.

3. Digital Medical Scopes and Other Accessories

Digital stethoscopes are the functional, high-tech tool that telemedicine has been waiting for. The digital stethoscope works by using the microphone on the patient’s device to capture and stream audio files to the provider. This requires very little from the provider except for a pair of high-quality, over the ear headphones, and allows them to analyze the audio data in real-time. If providers and their facilities wish to keep these audio files for future study or reference, they may want to consider investing in a HIPAA-compliant network file storage system.

4. Tablets

Tablets are the perfect tool for any healthcare facility to invest money in. They are incredibly versatile, which makes it easier to adapt to any practice with just the download of an app or hardware purchase. Providers can use the tablet as an advanced clipboard, allowing them to take detailed notes that are transferred efficiently to an electronic health record system. Many digital health accessories, such as the digital stethoscope, have apps that allow medical providers to transmit, store, and then analyze their patients’ data. While a tablet can’t take the place of a PC, it can be a vital tool in the workplace.

5. Visual Aids

Just as visual aids are used in an in-person visit, they can also have the same use in a telemedicine visit. Common aids such as pain scales, portion size guides, can help ensure that telemedicine visits run smoothly, efficiently, and quickly. For visual aids to be useful in telemedicine, they need to be large and clear enough to see in a video chat window or be shared through a digital screen-share in their digital form. These familiar aids can help to act as reminders that telemedicine, while it may be new, can be just as useful as a traditional appointment.

Are you considering Telemedicine? Contact a team member at MedCare Staffing today and let’s start the conversation.

Who are we? MedCare Staffing is a small, veteran-owned, family-oriented team. We start every day with gratitude because we LOVE what we do! We are a team on a mission to make a positive difference in the lives of our clients and providers.

What we do: We place Physicians, Dentists & Advanced Practitioners in Locum Tenens, Contract Positions and Permanent Jobs

To contact MedCare Staffing, call 888.474.3380 or visit or website by clicking here!

January 30, 2020
Why More People are Choosing Locum Tenens

Locum tenens workers are in high demand nowadays due to many factors, including the increase in demand for clinical services from newly insured patients, and the increase of physician shortages across the country. Locum workers are most highly used in psychiatry, primary care, and hospital medicine, but have continued to needed across a multitude of other specialties. With the rising demand for services, healthcare leaders have begun to turn to locum tenens to fulfill their staffing needs increasingly. Having locums workers on your staff helps to provide a continuity of care while allowing flexible staffing solutions.

Locum tenens assignments help provide physicians and advanced practitioners with greater flexibility and career experience. Working locum tenens also allows them to travel, choose where and when they want to work, and decide if they wish to work part-time or full-time.

Why are Employers turning to locums?

More healthcare organizations are making use of locum tenens physicians today than they have in the past. Locum workers used to be seen as a temporary fix to staffing issues but are becoming a vital part of the continuity of patient care.

In addition to the issues the healthcare world faces with physician burnout and the uneven balance between supply and demand, facilities can’t afford to have gaps in their care. Vacancies in their facilities lead to long wait times, and delays in treatment, hiring locum tenens workers can bridge those gaps and help the facilities and continuing their high quality of care.

Why are so many clinicians choosing locum tenens?

As the medical world continues to evolve, clinicians have more options than ever before. The flexibility offered by locum tenens work is only one factor in why it’s so popular. Clinicians get the chance to travel and experience a wide variety of different facilities.

Getting to experience different facilities can broaden their knowledge, especially if clinicians choose to take an assignment in a rural or urban location. Getting to work and live in different areas helps to expand their horizons and could help them decide where they want to practice full time. But the main reason so many clinicians are turning to locum tenens is their ability to choose where they go on assignment.

Why choose MedCare Staffing?

It can often be hard to choose the right company for you when you choose to start working as a locum tenens clinician as there are so many available. MedCare is an excellent option for those just beginning in the locum tenens world, and we are a small, close-knit company that values not only the providers we work with but our clinicians as well.

At MedCare Staffing, you are not only getting to work with a fantastic team, but you have a chance to work with the managing partners. This is a unique experience that sets MedCare Staffing apart from other larger staffing agencies.

Reach out to us today and join our family, we’ll make sure to take care of you and yours.

Who are we? MedCare Staffing is a small, veteran-owned, family-oriented team. We start every day with gratitude because we LOVE what we do! We are a team on a mission to make a positive difference in the lives of our clients and providers.

What we do: We place Physicians, Dentists & Advanced Practitioners in Locum Tenens, Contract Positions and Permanent Jobs

To contact MedCare Staffing, call 888.474.3380 or visit or website by clicking here!

January 28, 2020
3 New Years Resolutions You Can Keep

Typically, most New Years’ resolutions fail by the second week of January, at least where those involving exercise and diet are concerned. Other popular resolutions like improved money management, working on relationships, and stress management, tend to last longer. Around 80% of New Year’s resolutions are forgotten about by the end of February. Below we have listed three easily attainable resolutions for locum tenens clinicians!

Get Moving More

Clinicians are often on the move regularly throughout the day. Going to the gym after a long day can be the last thing on your mind, especially if you spent an endless night on call or had a day filled with caring for patients. Exercise isn’t limited to running on the treadmill or lifting weights at the gym. You can quickly get more out of your day by taking the stairs instead of an elevator or parking a little farther away. This helps to break up your exercise into manageable bite-sized pieces without having to spend hours and a bunch of money at a gym. If you’re wanting a way to see how many steps a day you’re doing, try wearing a smartwatch or exercise tracking watch to know the difference when you make these small changes.

Work on Reducing Your Stress

Working in medicine is stressful, regardless of your position. Even more, stress can be added to these positions when you are a locum tenens worker becoming a part of a new team on an assignment. Regardless of where you practice, it is a given that your patients will not act according to textbooks, which will, in turn, up your stress level.

While stress is a given in this profession, daily stress management looks different for everyone. For some people, a visit to the gym, walking around the block at lunch, or climbing stairs helps, while for others, meditation or deep breathing does the trick. Something that can help is a free mobile app called “Take a Break!“. The app guides you through a seven-minute work break or a thirteen-minute stress relief meditation. While this is a great option, and exercise is a great alternative, they both take a bit of time, so a quick alternative would be to take four deep breaths whenever you are feeling overwhelmed.

Improve Your Financial Health

As a locums provider, it’s possible that you’ll be paid more than your colleagues employed by the clinic or hospital. Many of your expenses will be tax-deductible. A good rule of thumb is to take time at the beginning of the year to review your financial health, and whatever goals you might have for the upcoming year.

If you are facing a large amount of debt, try paying off the debt that has the highest interest first. After you pay your monthly obligations, pay yourself. By putting money away in your savings or into your retirement account, you are setting yourself up for financial freedom later in life.

Tips for Keeping Your New Year’s Resolution

First, you will need to be realistic. If you make plans to run a marathon when you have yet to run a mile, it is bound to fail. Instead, make smaller, more attainable goals that you can work on throughout the year.

Share your goals with others; it will help hold you accountable. It only takes 21 days for a new change to be committed to habit, but six months for it to be permanently cemented in your daily routine.

Keep track of your progress, and make sure to reward yourself along the way. Commit to 2020, being the year that you lead your best life and achieving your goals.

Who are we? MedCare Staffing is a small, veteran-owned, family-oriented team. We start every day with gratitude because we LOVE what we do! We are a team on a mission to make a positive difference in the lives of our clients and providers.

What we do: We place Physicians, Dentists & Advanced Practitioners in Locum Tenens, Contract Positions and Permanent Jobs

To contact MedCare Staffing, call 888.474.3380 or visit or website by clicking here!

January 10, 2020
The Rise of Teen Vaping
Over the previous two decades, we celebrated a decrease in youth smoking trends. The rate has further decreased as the message about the health risks that surround cigarettes has seemed to hit home with its target audience.

Unfortunately, we cannot celebrate this achievement quite yet as there has been an uptick in a new nicotine delivery trend: vaping. Over the past two years, teens have taken to vaping at an unprecedented rate. When e-cigarettes and vaping devices first came about, they were marketed as smoking cessation devices for adults. The products claimed to be able to deliver nicotine without the benefit of removing the dangerous by-products of combustion.

While vaping used to be dubbed as “safe smoking,” new evidence has come to light that proves the opposite is true. In 2015, the vaping market made many significant changes, including:
- Smaller and more easily disguised units
- Brightly colored packaging with sweet, enticing flavors such as jolly rancher, strawberry milk and fruity pebbles
- Social media showcased commercials with young people dancing and vaping. This has made vaping more appealing to teenagers, and marketing to younger populations has become the norm
- Middle school and High school-aged kids have taken to vaping like wildfire, with 27.8% of teens have taken up the vaping habit
What is vaping?

Vaping gets its name from the vapor that’s produced when an electrical coil heats an installed packet of liquid/juice, vaporizing it to allow it to be inhaled. The types of vaping devices vary from cigarette looking, pen shapes, or the Juul, which features a slim rectangular device similar to a flash drive. These devices deliver nicotine and flavoring. To use the device, you inhale the vapor and exhale a small amount, which may or may not emit an odor. To recharge, the devices use small USB plugs that can connect with most wall plugs.

How are kids gaining access to them?

Even though tobacco products are illegal for those under 18, it seems that teenagers aren’t having much of an issue obtaining vape devices. Many of the products are sold over the internet with very little in the way of age verification, and storefront shops are popping up nearly everywhere.

Teenagers are getting their hands on vapes through social connections or lax law enforcement. Once they’ve gotten their hands on them, they are often hard for parents and teachers to identify and monitor their use and spread. For example, many students are taking advantage of the times when teachers turn their backs during class and vaping. The vape cloud quickly dissipates, leaving very little evidence. The absence of the smell cigarettes cause helps to keep parents out of the loop.

What is the medical evidence showing the harm in vaping?

While direct evidence will be hard to come by for vaping due to it being a new fad, there is some evidence that it isn’t as great of a substitute for tobacco use. All vape pods contain nicotine in amounts that tend to be higher than those found in cigarettes. There is no doubt that nicotine is highly addictive, and breeds concerns about the potential development of other tobacco habits. The damage that nicotine addiction does to cardiovascular health is well documented.

The liquids found in e-cigarettes and vaping liquid tend to be questionable, like diacetyl, which is used to provide the sweet flavor and originated as a flavoring agent for popcorn. Diacetyl is thought to be the cause of Bronchiolitis Obliterans in popcorn factory workers that failed to use proper respiratory protection. The condition is now known as popcorn lung and causes the alveolar walls to break down in the lungs. Another chemical often found in vapes is glycerol, the compound breaks down to formaldehyde, which is a well-known cancer-causing agent when heated. With all of these chemicals being inhaled deep into the lungs, there are bound to be significant consequences.

How do we protect our patients?

Raising awareness with not only parents, but teenagers as well can help to set patients on the right track to being informed about what it is they are putting into their body. Despite the fact that there are not many long-term studies, there is enough information available to advise that vaping is both addictive and unhealthy. Most teens are under the impression that vaping is a fun and consequence-free habit, but as clinicians, you must inform them that the opposite is exact.

At MedCare Staffing, we do our best to stay up to date in all news related to the medical field. Teen vaping is alarming to us. For tips on how to talk to teenagers about vaping, check out this guide from the Partnership for Drug-Free Kids.

Who are we? MedCare Staffing is a small, veteran-owned, family-oriented team. We start every day with gratitude because we LOVE what we do! We are a team on a mission to make a positive difference in the lives of our clients and providers.

What we do: We place Physicians, Dentists & Advanced Practitioners in Locum Tenens, Contract Positions and Permanent Jobs

To contact MedCare Staffing call 888.474.3380 or visit or website by clicking here!
January 2, 2020
Four States To Consider For Assignments in 2020

With 2019 coming to an end, it might be the perfect time to travel with locum tenens. Most people’s New Years’ resolutions include going after something they have been waiting to do; don’t let traveling with locum tenens be a resolution failure. To help you get a jump-start, we have four different states that are teeming with potential, and a bit of fun. These states have a significant number of locum opportunities, and if one of them seems like the right fit for you, reach out to one of our recruiters and start packing!

New Mexico

For those who love the outdoors, this Southwestern gem has plenty of miles of untamed wilderness to explore. Incredible snippets of culture and exotic cuisine are readily available in places such as Santa Fe and Taos. New Mexico offers many historical sites with dinosaur relics! The state is also home to the country’s largest hot air balloon festival. Not only does New Mexico have plenty of exciting things to do, but it also offers warm weather, modest housing prices, and 85 state hospitals.

Ohio

Ohio offers many opportunities for those who prefer to practice rural medicine. While the state does offer some larger cities that give you that ‘big city’ feeling, it is more likely that you’ll be practicing small-town medicine in Ohio. An excellent example of both rural medicine feel with big-city amenities would be Columbus, Ohio. There are excellent schools, job opportunities for your spouse, and the basic amenities of a bigger city. Ohio offers the best of both worlds.

Oklahoma

The Sooner State offers many opportunities to a wide variety of locum tenens jobs. The state itself is peaceful and relaxing, yet rugged wilderness is just around the corner. In Oklahoma, you have an opportunity to work either in rural or urban medicine! Oklahoma is also home to the National Cowboy Hall of Fame, and over 100 hospitals.

California

California is a fantastic place to work and live in if you enjoy the hustle-and-bustle of a state that’s always on the move. The state has much to offer in the way of entertainment, with historic landmarks and cities, as well as incredible natural wonders like the redwood forest. Whether you want to work in one of the state’s prestigious hospitals or a smaller clinic, the opportunities are endless. California is known to have more locum tenens jobs than any other state, and there are opportunities in almost every medical specialty.

If any of these states interest you, contact a MedCare Staffing consultant today. Or feel free to visit our job board by clicking here. We are adding new permanent and locum assignments weekly.

Who are we? MedCare Staffing is a small, veteran-owned, family-oriented team. We start every day with gratitude because we LOVE what we do! We are a team on a mission to make a positive difference in the lives of our clients and providers.

What we do: We place Physicians, Dentists & Advanced Practitioners in Locum Tenens, Contract Positions and Permanent Jobs

To contact MedCare Staffing, call 888.474.3380 or visit or website by clicking here!

January 1, 2020
5 Reasons to Try Locum Tenens in 2020

With the year and the decade coming to an end, you might be asking yourself, what next? If you have been looking for a way to add new life into your career, it might be the right time to consider locum tenens. It offers a unique opportunity to continue caring for patients while experiencing new places. Locum tenens can help provide a new perspective on work-life balance and allow you to grow professionally and personally. Locums can even open up new opportunities in your career. We here at MedCare Staffing have listed five reasons to try locum tenens in the new year.

1. Career Flexibility

After experiencing years of intense schooling, training, and work experience, medical professionals may find that they have locked themselves in a particular schedule or organization. Stability can be a good thing, but clinicians who feel stuck working in one place can experience burnout and might feel as if they have no other options. Locum tenens can offer a break from this and provide a more flexible routine. You have the power to choose your assignments with the help of one of our recruiters. This ability to choose allows you to find a contract that fits what you are looking for in your career.

2. Growing Demand for Locum Tenens Workers

With the increase in physician burnout and staffing shortages nation-wide, there are exponentially more locum tenens positions available. Many healthcare organizations are turning to locum tenens to fill gaps in their care, which leads to more assignment choices. 2020 is expected to be an excellent year for those looking to work as a locum tenens medical professional.

3. Earn Some Extra Income

If you are looking to pay off medical school loans, build up your retirement fund, or start saving for a home, locum tenens work can help you achieve those goals. Locums work comes in the form of either part-time or full-time assignments.

Part-time assignments may involve working extra shifts at a local hospital or clinic on your off-days, which will add to your regular salary. Full-time locums assignments usually include a travel position that will cover housing and reimbursements for travel expenses. With the opportunity for overtime pay, you can quickly add to those savings. Both types of assignments offer a competitive hourly wage that tends to be higher than the salary for permanent positions.

4. Satisfy Your Travel-Bug

The opportunity to travel and experience new states is one of the main reasons that people turn to locum tenens. If you want to experience a new state without having to take an extended vacation or wait for retirement, locum tenens can offer that chance. Not only can you experience all that a new state has to offer, but you get to do it while making money.

5. Boost Your Resume with New Experiences

Working in a new location or a new healthcare system can offer a boost for your medical career. With the opportunity to work at top healthcare facilities, rural hospitals, and community clinics, you’ll be able to add more to your skillset and boost your resume as well. As a locums worker, you have the opportunity to work with different employers, learn from new and diverse mentors, and care for new patient populations. All of this added experience help to make you stand out among the crowd and can lead to more significant opportunities in the future.

Ready to learn more? Feel free to call or email us today! MedCare Staffing would love to talk with you about any questions you have!

Who are we? MedCare Staffing is a small, veteran-owned, family-oriented team. We start every day with gratitude because we LOVE what we do! We are a team on a mission to make a positive difference in the lives of our clients and providers.

What we do: We place Physicians, Dentists & Advanced Practitioners in Locum Tenens, Contract Positions and Permanent Jobs

To contact MedCare Staffing call 888.474.3380 or visit or website by clicking here!

December 31, 2019
Keeping Up With Your Mail While Doing Locums

While traveling on your locum tenens assignments, having your mail catch up with your new locations could be a challenge. There are multiple methods through which you can get your mail in a complete and timely manner. While most things such as bills are done electronically nowadays, there are some types of snail mail that you can’t receive over the internet. So we have listed some alternative ways to make sure you get your mail.

Friends and Family

Some locums workers pay a small rent to a friend or family member to establish their tax home. For those who choose to do this, that location acts as their physical address, which can be both a cost-effective and easy way to make sure you get your mail. Your “landlord” can box up the mail and send it to you as needed. It’s an easy and straightforward way to keep your family up-to-date on where you are. This also helps to simplify things for tax purposes, since you receive mail at your tax home. While this may seem like a fantastic option, you also have to take into account that your friends and relatives might get tired of running back and forth from the post office frequently.

Post Office

The US Postal Service (USPS) offers a few programs for forwarding your mail, and they provide many options at varying price levels. The cheapest and most straightforward option is to change your address temporarily. You can use this service for as little as 15 days, and up to 6 months, with an additional 6-month extension possible. The most significant benefit to this is that it only costs $1.05 to set up online at USPS.com. The only downside is there is often a lag time between when the mail arrives at your home post office and when you receive it. And during the transition from one address to a new one, your mail could get lost.

Another viable option would be to use the Premium Forwarding Service (PFS). With this service, your mail is packaged every Wednesday and sent out via Priority Mail. The service requires you to pay an enrollment fee and $21.10 each week of service use. While this service is faster than changing your address and easily tracked with a weekly email tracking number, it is far more expensive than updating your address.

With both options, you have to make new arrangements with each new locum tenens assignment. PFS does offer options to hold mail for 1-2 weeks so that you can avoid delivery mishaps like getting your mail too late at an old address or too early at a new address.

There’s an App for that!

Just like most everything else today, there is an app for receiving mail! Virtual Mailbox (VM) is one such app. Unlike when you receive mail at a post office, your mail arrives at their facility where the envelopes are scanned and uploaded to your personal VM for viewing and managing from any smart device. With VM, you have multiple mail options, you can choose to have them open, scan, and email the contents, or for more sensitive material, they can forward it to your current address. If you receive some junk mail, you can have them toss it out without ever bothering you. Virtual mailboxes tend to be less expensive than other options because the mail is scanned and emailed and not mailed out to you. This can be a more comfortable option as you don’t have to contact them directly to update your address every time you move when on assignment.

All of these options can help give you the peace of mind that you will receive your mail regardless of your location. This can help ease some of the worries that can be connected with traveling for locum tenens assignments and allow you to enjoy the experience.

Who are we? MedCare Staffing is a small, veteran-owned, family-oriented team. We start every day with gratitude because we LOVE what we do! We are a team on a mission to make a positive difference in the lives of our clients and providers.

What we do: We place Physicians, Dentists & Advanced Practitioners in Locum Tenens, Contract Positions and Permanent Jobs

To contact MedCare Staffing call 888.474.3380 or visit or website by clicking here!

December 13, 2019
7 Holiday Tips for Locum Tenens Over the Holidays

While the holidays can prove to be the busiest time of the year, working as a locum tenens worker comes with its challenges. Trying to juggle your sanity during the holiday season can often be hard to do, but we’ve come up with seven-holiday tips to hopefully help you stay sane.

1. Try to plan favorite holiday traditions so you don’t miss out

Whether you’re working on Thanksgiving or have planned shifts on Christmas, this doesn’t mean you have to miss out on your favorite holiday traditions. It’s possible to find the time to do them so that you can enjoy them with family and friends. Scheduling your family celebration the day before or after, or even earlier in the day can help prevent you from missing out. There are also many different forms of technological communication for events you can’t reschedule such as FaceTime or Skype.

2. Get your flu shot

If you haven’t gotten your flu vaccine yet, you need to! With the exposure to patients with the virus, and the exhaustion that often comes with holiday stress you are more susceptible than ever. It’s even possible that the facility you’ll be working in will require it anyway.

3. Anticipate patient scenarios

The flu and other similar cases seem to show up more frequently around this time of year. A 2018 study done by the BMJ reported that the incidence of myocardial infarction tends to spike around Christmas time, noting that it was highest among the old and sick patients. It has also been noticed that there tends to be a higher number of patients with diabetic ketoacidosis (DKA) after the influx of big holiday meals, without patients appropriately adjusting their insulin.

4. Do your holiday shopping online

If your holiday tradition includes the exchanging of gifts, utilize all that the internet has to offer. You can save valuable time by skipping the crowded shopping malls. You can have gifts arranged to be delivered directly to your chosen recipient, and you can even have them pre-wrapped. All of this can help to ensure you can spend the most time with those you love.

5. Make sure to treat yourself

Be sure to get enough sleep and make time to relax and recharge your batteries so that you can be sure to make it through the hectic holiday season. If you are going to be away on a locum tenens assignment this holiday season, don’t be ashamed to make time to do things for you. You could do this by scheduling a massage, having a nice dinner, or adding holiday decorations to bring you some holiday cheer.

6. Try volunteering

Volunteering for a local cause can be a great way to spend your off-hours during an assignment. The holiday season is the busiest for local charities, and they are often in need of extra volunteers. You could help by serving holiday meals, handing out food at a food pantry or participating in a toy drive. All of these options can help you feel good during the holiday season.

7. Enjoy where you are

Wherever your locum tenens assignment might take you, you can enjoy fun holiday activities. If you’re in a state that gets a bunch of snow you could go ice skating, or catch a holiday parade or festival. Despite being away from home you can still enjoy fun holiday activities.

You have a chance to make a difference by taking an assignment during the holiday season. Patients you will be seeing over the holidays are typically very sick and being there for them can truly make an impact.

MedCare Staffing wants to take this time to wish you a very Happy Holiday season. We hope these holiday tips can help you during this time. Cheers to the New Year!

Who are we? MedCare Staffing is a small, veteran-owned, family-oriented team. We start every day with gratitude because we LOVE what we do! We are a team on a mission to make a positive difference in the lives of our clients and providers.

What we do: We place Physicians, Dentists & Advanced Practitioners in Locum Tenens, Contract Positions and Permanent Jobs

To contact MedCare Staffing call 888.474.3380 or visit or website by clicking here!

December 10, 2019
Taxes and Locum Tenens. Tips For You To Consider

Tax time is around the corner and locum tenens offers a new type of freedom with many benefits to those in the medical field. From schedule flexibility to traveling all over, the possibilities are endless. Accepting temporary contracts through locum tenens also provides an opportunity for supplementing your income.

While locum tenens professionals work with a staffing agency, they are not employees of that agency or the healthcare facilities they work in; they are independent contractors. This brings its own fiscal responsibilities, so we have compiled some tips for being money-smart while working locum tenens jobs.

Set Aside Funds for Taxes

Locum tenens workers are compensated in gross, which means that they are paid in full for the hours they work without any state and federal tax deductions. You are still responsible for paying taxes on your income earned during each contract. Most contract workers and financial advisors suggest that you set aside a portion of each paycheck to account for tax payments. That way, when April 15 rolls around, you won’t be caught off guard with a hefty tax bill. The IRS has a helpful form, IRS Form 1040-ES, that helps you calculate how much you will owe in taxes.

Pay Estimated Quarterly Taxes

Most state tax agencies and the IRS encourage contract workers to make estimated payments every quarter, which means paying them in April, June, September, and January of the following year. There could even be late fees applied for missing these deadlines. It is also essential to know that contract workers are required to pay self-employment tax. This tax covers social security and medicare, and this payment typically occurs when filing your annual tax return.

Contribute to Retirement Accounts

A great idea to make sure that you have a retirement fund set up. An easy way to make sure that you pay into it is by putting away some money when paying your quarterly taxes. Not only are you helping to set yourself up in the future, but most of these contributions can be considered tax-free, thus lowering your overall taxable income.

Keep Track of Records While on the Road

Conveniently, locum tenens staffing companies take on the cost of housing and transportation for assignments. While they take care of the basics, you are going to inevitably have some expenses while on contract, including meals. The IRS allows you, as a contract worker, to deduct costs of doing business away from home that are not typically reimbursed (i.e., meals).

You should be keeping track of your receipts for the purchases made while you’re on contract. Still, you should also maintain a record of healthcare insurance premiums, licensing, and professional services, such as hiring a lawyer or accountant. These can be submitted as deductions, which are typically done with a profit and loss statement in your tax return.

Dailyfinance.com states that contract workers who claim less than $5,000 in business expenses and who do not report net losses can use the Schedule C-EZ Net Profit From Business form.

Whenever taxes or finances are involved, it is always a good idea to be safe and check in with a tax specialist or a certified financial advisor, to make sure that you are on track.

While a locum tenens lifestyle requires you to assume a more proactive approach to managing finances, it is also true that this lifestyle can provide an impressive return on your investment in it.

Who are we? MedCare Staffing is a small, veteran-owned, family-oriented team. We start every day with gratitude because we LOVE what we do! We are a team on a mission to make a positive difference in the lives of our clients and providers.

What we do: We place Physicians, Dentists & Advanced Practitioners in Locum Tenens, Contract Positions and Permanent Jobs

To contact MedCare Staffing call 888.474.3380 or visit or website by clicking here!

December 7, 2019