Sponsors (2)
The bill makes it easier and cheaper for health care providers to use temporary clinicians by treating qualifying locum tenens as independent contractors for certain federal labor laws, but it does so at the cost of reduced worker protections and potential administrative confusion across other legal and benefit systems.
Hospitals, health systems, and staffing agencies can continue using locum tenens clinicians as independent contractors for covered federal labor laws, preserving flexible temporary staffing and helping maintain staffing capacity.
Health care facilities and contracting agencies avoid certain employer liabilities (e.g., obligations under FLSA, NLRA, Title VII) for qualifying locum clinicians, reducing administrative and legal costs.
The bill clarifies federal treatment of temporary clinicians across multiple programs for covered labor statutes, reducing regulatory uncertainty for facilities and clinicians about employment status after enactment.
Locum clinicians who qualify as independent contractors under the bill could lose employee protections (overtime, discrimination safeguards, collective‑bargaining rights) and access to employer‑provided benefits (paid leave, retirement coverage), reducing worker protections and income stability.
Because the reclassification applies to certain federal labor laws but not to tax, Social Security, unemployment insurance, or Medicare/Medicaid, clinicians and employers may face administrative complexity and confusion about status across programs.
Allowing temporary workers on long placements (up to one year) to be treated as contractors can enable prolonged exclusion from employee protections, creating a potential pathway to circumvent worker rights for extended periods.
Based on analysis of 2 sections of legislative text.
Classifies qualifying locum tenens physicians and advanced practice clinicians as independent contractors for specified federal employee-status determinations unless a written contract states otherwise.
Official title: To recognize the importance of clinical roles of locum tenens physicians, and for other purposes.
Introduced February 25, 2026 by Buddy Carter · Last progress February 25, 2026
Creates a federal rule that certain temporary clinicians—called "qualified locum tenens physicians or advanced care practitioners"—are treated as independent contractors rather than employees for a specified set of federal labor and employment laws and for HHS-administered employee-status determinations, unless a written contract says they are employees. Defines who qualifies, limits the temporary placement to a single site for up to one year, preserves state licensure and scope-of-practice rules, and explicitly does not change federal tax rules, Social Security/Medicare wage treatment, unemployment eligibility, or federal health program reimbursement rules.