Travel agency suing me for Per Diem for contract I did not start

icuRNmaggie, BSN, RN · Jun 18, 2015

I was contemplating contacting this agency inspite of their reputation. Thank you for posting this.

I have no advice to offer but I am curious if there were penalties for cancellation specified in the contract.

NedRN · Jun 18, 2015

Someone else posted about AM sending a "bill" to collections a couple of weeks ago. This is an outrageous abuse of the FCRA (fair credit reporting act). It could be legal but it is still an abuse to treat a labor contract as a money lending contract, especially in the absence of real damages. PanTravelers is looking into it. In the meantime, all we can do as a community is to shun AM and their various brands and let them know why. Just a few travelers turning down opportunities with them will cost them far more than they could ever hope to recover via collections and damaging traveler credit reports. They are a really, really big company and I've copied a list of their agency brands below.

About your personal situation, try calling the state labor board in California (AM's domicile), your state labor board, and the work state labor board. One of them may be able to help you settle this.

American Mobile brands are:

American Mobile Healthcare
Medical Express 2006
NursesRx 2000
Preferred Healthcare Staffing (brand disused as of Feb 2009)
Platinum Select
HRMC
O'Grady-Peyton International (international) 2001
Staff Care (physician)
Merritt Hawkins & Associates (physician)
Nurse Choice

RN Demand (brand disused as of Feb 2009)

RN Extend
Med Travelers (allied)
Rx Pro Health (pharmacy) 2007
Thera Tech Staffing (allied) 2003
Medfinders (vendor management) 2010
SingleSource (vendor management) 2010
Nursefinders (vendor management, travel, local staffing) 2010
Nursefinders Homecare 2010
National Healthcare Staffing (travel) 2010
Linde Healthcare/Kendall & Davis (physicians) 2010
Resources On Call (allied health) 2010
Club Staffing (allied health) 2010
Shiftwise (vendor management) 2013
Onward Healthcare (nursing and allied) 2015
Locum Leaders (locum tenens) 2015
Medefis (vendor management) 2015

caliotter3 · Jun 18, 2015

Thanks for the list Ned. Surprised to see Nursefinders on the list. One of my classmates got his first job with them and was trying to get me to go with them.

NedRN · Jun 18, 2015

I have an interesting NurseFinders story, at least interesting to me. I've never done local agency (except for a few days before I became a traveler) so I don't know NurseFinders from that. NurseFinders used to be big in local, not so much travel. Except that they were an early vendor manager and landed perhaps the largest account in the country (other than HCA), Kaiser hospitals in California. I did Kaiser contracts through one of their legion subcontracting agencies and did a telephone interview with them, and had to visit their offices to do the mandatory OHSA, drug tests and so on.

The interesting part is that in 2009/2010 American Mobile took away the Kaiser contract from NF and just a few months later purchased NurseFinders! Perhaps NurseFinders was cheaper after they lost Kaiser.

I just remembered that there is some more bad history from American Mobile. O'Grady-Peyton is one of their brands but mostly used for international recruiting. If you think your cancellation penalties are steep, OGP had a $20,000 penalty. Mind you, it was a two year contract for most of their travelers and OGP had a good bit invested in recruiting as they had to pay for NCLEX training and a plane flight over for the test. Historically, overseas trained nurses have a really bad pass rate. Nevertheless, OGP did not have $20,000 per traveler in expenses and paid below market rates to the contracted nurses. I helped one traveler get past the penalty phase - I'd have to read old emails and forum posts to remember the details, but the facts were on her side.

American Mobile has become the 800 pound gorilla in nurse travel, and unfortunately become a monster in other ways. This happens to many corporations when they get too big, they get arrogant and no longer adhere to best business practices. Most travelers will not have a problem, only the ones in your situation. As a result, American Mobile represents an unreasonable risk for all travelers. There are lots of agencies, no reason for anyone to take on the risk of working with a bad player, no matter how large.

rn2themaxx · Jun 20, 2015

Ned, thank you for the compilation of A.M.N's companies. I was advised by another colleague as well to contact the CA labor board. I will keep you guys posted. I do enjoy traveling but the blatant greed and disrespect for skilled professional RN's by these companies is disheartening.

michlynn, BSN, RN · Jun 20, 2015

you guys are making me so nervous about AMN! I'm on my first assignment with them and haven't had any issues thus far... but now I'm worried about future contracts with them!

NedRN · Jun 20, 2015

You will have to figure out the risk/reward ratio here for you personally. As I said, most travelers will not have a problem. But why take the risk? You will likely earn more working for another agency as well. No downside!

BD-RN, BSN, RN · Jun 21, 2015

It makes me sad to hear these stories about AMN, as I travelled with them. If I go back to travel, I'll steer clear, and DEFINITELY won't recommend them to anyone!

Edgeorose1 · Jun 22, 2015

Not sure what you can do. It would be nice to be able to litigate against AMN, but hardly worth the effort for $500.00. I have entertained the idea of figuring a way to break my own contract with AMN but have refrained because of the potential problems I could face. I am currently working my second assignment with AMN and have no intention of continuing with them. My first assignment was satisfactory but the current assignment is a contract from hell...yes, I signed it, but I must say there was plenty of deception on the part of my recruiter who refuses to return phone calls and e-mails at this point. As a Nurse who spent 31 years as a permanent hospital employee, it's quite different negotiating with a recruiter who seems to have the negotiating ethics of a used car salesman.