HR1160-119

What This Bill Does

The Health Care Provider Shortage Minimization Act creates a federal tax classification rule for qualified locum tenens clinicians. A qualified locum tenens physician or advanced care practitioner who provides temporary services at a site for no more than one continuous year is not treated as an employee for federal tax obligations. Hiring entities, staffing agencies, third-party payors, and related parties are not treated as employers, and remuneration is not treated as wages for employment-tax purposes. The policy is designed to make temporary clinical staffing easier, but it also reduces employee-status protections and payroll-tax treatment for covered workers.

Who Benefits and How

Locum tenens physicians benefit from clearer independent-contractor tax treatment for temporary clinical assignments. Advanced care practitioners benefit if the rule makes temporary placements easier and more predictable. Health care facilities benefit because temporary clinicians can be used without employer payroll-tax treatment. Medical staffing agencies benefit from a statutory rule supporting non-employee classification.

Who Bears the Burden and How

The IRS must administer a new health care worker classification rule and police the one-year site limit. Federal payroll-tax accounts may lose revenue when covered remuneration is excluded from employment wages. Worker-classification advocates bear the burden because the bill moves covered clinicians away from employee status. Locum clinicians may lose employment-linked protections if temporary assignments are treated as contractor work.

Key Provisions

• Adds a federal tax rule treating qualified locum tenens clinicians as non-employees.
• Excludes covered remuneration from employment wages for federal tax obligations.
• Covers temporary physician and advanced-practitioner services lasting no more than one continuous year at a site.
• Protects hiring entities and staffing agencies from employer classification for covered locum tenens work.