Does your recruiter tell you if she is going through a 3rd party for your contract? Say X agency is your agency and is working through Y agency who works for ABC hospital.
I think I should be told up front who the agency is, so that I can refuse if needed. Am I right?
I'm in a situation that the hospital ended up canceling the contract, and Y agency did not honor the contract. SO .... back to square one....
Should I agree to work with X agency in the future?
I'm currently frustrated, puzzled, sceptical ...and then some!
3 rd party vendors ( TPV for sake of brevity) : after a string of strange requests/requirements/ automated interviews and such, I find that :-
-they can make or break a travel contract ( no accountability, no explanations!)
- put up requirements/ requests that are questionable, not approved/lawful ( 2 step PPD ?)
- opaque, anything BUT transparent recruiter/ facility/traveler communication; often deliberately overbooking on travelers, thus eliminating them;
- TPV also responsible for the downgrading of what used to be a full grown contract - now often a very loose agreement!
- I'm angry about it, have less work - and wish that there would be a Watch- dog organization ( CNA?) put upon them for scrutiny!
I'd love to hear others experiences ? If you agree w. me, a grass roots opposing to this practice would /could be possible! ( similar to tenants against predatory landlords!)
And yes, In essence - The TPV's practice IS predatory - they want a big piece of a large, potentially prolific pie!
Let's use the more inclusive and correct label of vendor managers. Often they are not exactly third parties, but supply their own travelers too. American Mobile and Cross Country are two such vendor managers and agencies combined.
I agree completely that adding one more layer reduces transparency for both agencies and travelers. Where practical, agencies with direct contracts and relationships with hospitals can provide both better service and better fits to their client hospitals (assuming above average competence here). In talking to agency owners, the better run ones say that a majority of their job orders come from vendor managers, but a majority of their filled jobs come from direct contracts. Effectively for direct contracts, agencies are competing against a more limited set of agencies, perhaps no more than 20 but more like a half dozen active ones (just like it is difficult for travelers to sign up with 20 agencies, so it is difficult for hospitals too!). Under those conditions, the hospitals know the agencies well and who provides the best travelers and services their contracts. So a competitive edge over dealing with a vendor manager that might have over one hundred subcontracting agencies, all submitting profiles for their travelers.
Notice the caveat above "where practical." When you are a hospital chain with 100 plus hospitals such as Kaiser, HCA, and Tenet, or individual hospitals with high needs (say 30 plus travelers needed year round or seasonally), management of a 100 different agency contracts through internal HR at every hospital to fill needs is just too much of a burden. So the hospital outsources HR - that is what a vendor manager is, an outsourced human resources department. There is a standard single contract that all subcontracting agencies sign (not downsized in any way, in fact generally much more comprehensive than a single facility agency or hospital written contract - 25 plus pages usually), uniform screening and testing of travelers, and uniform due diligence and QA of all submitted travelers.
This is so much more efficient than doing this internally that hospitals save big money and improve results. They are happy to pay extra for vendor managers. I have no idea why you think vendor managers are predatory but I don't think you understand the business model here. Most vendor managers have fees of around 3 to 4 percent of the bill rate, far less than a hospital would pay internally. It is a low margin business (and a lot of work) but still profitable because of the large volume. Vendor managers are just like other businesses, they are competing with other companies for business and fees have to be competitive. Just as agencies have to pay competitively to attract qualified travelers.
It might seem like having a "third party" in the middle reduces traveler pay. Not even close! Remember I've already mentioned that vendor managers reduce real hospital costs. Travelers are complete free agents and if pay is not competitive, they will go elsewhere. Supply and demand rules in the long term.
Yes, to agencies and travelers, there are significant downsides to vendor managers. Some travelers refuse to work such jobs, sometimes because of a bad experience with miscommunication, or more often in the mistaken belief that such assignments pay less. But I can't think of any good reason to not consider any assignment on its other merits.
I've been reading and I hope I'm not repeating a question you've already covered. But I am look army next contract in Texas. Parallon offers $300-400 more weekly than other companies. Is that due to the location or simply because they are the vendor manager? I want to make good money but I don't want to deal with the troubles of Parallon things either. This isn't my first contract but first HCA hospital as most of them in Texas are HCA.
You may be able to make more with Parallon on bread and butter assignments. For crisis or even urgent needs, other agencies will pay more even though Parallon is not only the VM but also owned by HCA. A little paradoxical until you think it through.
HCA is the largest for profit hospital chain in the country. Any HCA assignment has good odds of a bad working environment.
I personally also will never work in Texas for any hospital for the same reason and many more. I'll detail those reasons if you wish - or you can also search this and the Texas forum for more negatives than you can believe. Just too much risk no matter the pay.
Better to work somewhere else and visit Texas or holiday there unless you have specific knowledge of a particular hospital or unit.
Manuela62
2 Posts
I'm currently frustrated, puzzled, sceptical ...and then some!
3 rd party vendors ( TPV for sake of brevity) : after a string of strange requests/requirements/ automated interviews and such, I find that :-
-they can make or break a travel contract ( no accountability, no explanations!)
- put up requirements/ requests that are questionable, not approved/lawful ( 2 step PPD ?)
- opaque, anything BUT transparent recruiter/ facility/traveler communication; often deliberately overbooking on travelers, thus eliminating them;
- TPV also responsible for the downgrading of what used to be a full grown contract - now often a very loose agreement!
- I'm angry about it, have less work - and wish that there would be a Watch- dog organization ( CNA?) put upon them for scrutiny!
I'd love to hear others experiences ? If you agree w. me, a grass roots opposing to this practice would /could be possible! ( similar to tenants against predatory landlords!)
And yes, In essence - The TPV's practice IS predatory - they want a big piece of a large, potentially prolific pie!