Assembly Bill 5 has been passed and is soon to be signed by the Governor. It exempted medical doctors but did not exempt nurses, nurse practitioners or physician assistants from the legislation.
The bill prevents US, NPs PAs, and RN from being independent contractors in the State of California. LOCUMS IS DEAD.
You can not work in California UNLESS YOU ARE AN EMPLOYEE. I loved being a 1099 contractor and doing locums. I guess I will be moving out of State to continue my career. Look out....this kinda of crap could be coming for your state too.
I've never worked locums or as a travel nurse, but I was always under the impression locums jobs were considered employees of the locums company. Meaning the hospital pays a company for access to you. Any ancillary housing, healthcare, etc was covered through that company. If it's not like that, they could set it up like that to sorry around these obstacles. Wouldn't change the pay dynamic by much I imagine.
You are an independent contractor of the locums company. Under California law this will be illegal. You must be an employee unless you are a doctor, a dentist or some other special group that got a waiver. Unfortunately NPs did not. There is no way around this according to the 3 locum companies that I've worked with in the past. If you are an employee your hourly wages will go down is what I've been told. It sucks
Specializes in ACNP-BC, Adult Critical Care, Cardiology.
...and that is exactly why the wages will go down because the NP's would simply fall into the same category as travel nurses. Travel nurses work for the staffing agency who deducts W2 unlike NP's who work as independent contractors who file 1099. Travel nurses in my part of California are actually paid less per hour compared to regular hospital staff though they do have stipend and housing allowance which adds to the salary.
How do you guys think this will affect those that get paid per patient (I'm an NP that does home health visits/assessments?) Is anyone paid per patient on W2?
Specializes in ACNP-BC, Adult Critical Care, Cardiology.
9 hours ago, Dk2013CA said:
How do you guys think this will affect those that get paid per patient (I'm an NP that does home health visits/assessments?) Is anyone paid per patient on W2?
I don't know that it will have an impact. Those companies that hire NP's for Medicare home assessments deduct W2 taxes. Unless there are others that don't?
Years ago I worked for MedXM which is now part of quest doing Medicare home assessments. I was a 1099 contractor at the time. I would assume you would become an employee based upon the new law.
Specializes in Family medicine, Cardiology, Spinal Cord Injury.
I'm a 1099 employee that works 2 days a week in a primary care clinic as a Nurse Practitioner. So, starting Jan 1, I can no longer work in my clinic if my doctor doesn't hire me as a W2 employee? This would really suck.
Yeah, I really hope they would ad exemption for us later, it's stupid because doctors and lawyers and others that often work part time are already exempt from this new law, but not NP's.
I'm scared if my job converts to W2, it will lower my pay significantly, because I get paid per patient, and I don't know how they'll do per patient (instead of per hour) on W2. And what about home health RN's - they also get paid per patient, what are they going to do with that? ?
I'm a 1099 employee that works 2 days a week in a primary care clinic as a Nurse Practitioner. So, starting Jan 1, I can no longer work in my clinic if my doctor doesn't hire me as a W2 employee? This would really suck.
That is my understanding from talking to various labor attorneys and locum agencies.
Yeah, I really hope they would ad exemption for us later, it's stupid because doctors and lawyers and others that often work part time are already exempt from this new law, but not NP's.
I'm scared if my job converts to W2, it will lower my pay significantly, because I get paid per patient, and I don't know how they'll do per patient (instead of per hour) on W2. And what about home health RN's - they also get paid per patient, what are they going to do with that? ?
Great question. The California legislative session is over for 2019. The spring of 2020 is when they will convene again. The CANP sent me an email stating they are "having discussions" to add NPs as exempt. I'm not sure the CAN wants an exemption so my guess in your situation would still get paid per patient but get paid as a W2 employee. This will lower your income as your employer has to pay both side of the Medicare/SS tax. I would suspect home health RNs would all become employees too of the agencies that employ them with similar outcomes.
djmatte, ADN, MSN, RN, NP
1,248 Posts
I've never worked locums or as a travel nurse, but I was always under the impression locums jobs were considered employees of the locums company. Meaning the hospital pays a company for access to you. Any ancillary housing, healthcare, etc was covered through that company. If it's not like that, they could set it up like that to sorry around these obstacles. Wouldn't change the pay dynamic by much I imagine.