HR-8347-119
Ordered to be Reported (Amended) by the Yeas and Nays: 18 - 15.
Sponsored by Burgess Owens (R-UT)
What it does
This bill would require that qualified locum tenens professionals (temporary fill-in physicians) and advanced care practitioners — including nurse practitioners, physician assistants, and certified registered nurse anesthetists — be classified as independent contractors, not employees, under the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) and the National Labor Relations Act (NLRA). The classification would apply when these workers provide temporary services at a single site for no more than one continuous year under a written contract that specifies independent contractor status.
Who benefits
Hospitals, clinics, and healthcare facilities — particularly in rural and underserved areas — that use temporary staffing and would face reduced administrative, benefits, and compliance costs. Locum tenens staffing agencies that place temporary providers. Patients in rural or underserved communities who may gain access to providers that facilities can more affordably recruit on a temporary basis. Healthcare facilities with tight operating margins that rely on flexible staffing models.
Who is hurt
Locum tenens physicians, nurse practitioners, physician assistants, and nurse anesthetists who would lose FLSA protections — including minimum wage guarantees, overtime pay, and recordkeeping rights — and NLRA protections, including the right to organize and collectively bargain. Workers who are currently classified as employees by some facilities and would lose that status. Permanent healthcare employees whose collective bargaining leverage may be reduced if temporary workers cannot unionize alongside them. Workers who may be misclassified under contracts that label them as independent contractors regardless of the actual working relationship.
Supporters argue
Supporters argue that locum tenens professionals are highly compensated, credentialed specialists who operate as genuine independent businesses — often working across multiple facilities, setting their own schedules, and contracting through staffing agencies — making employee classification an ill-fitting legal framework. They contend that mandatory independent contractor status would reduce compliance burdens on rural and safety-net hospitals, which face chronic physician shortages, and that the Bureau of Labor Statistics projects a shortage of over 86,000 physicians by 2036, making flexible temporary staffing models essential to maintaining care access in underserved communities.
Opponents argue
Opponents argue that a blanket statutory classification strips workers of labor protections regardless of the actual economic realities of their working relationship — the very test courts and the Department of Labor have long used to determine employee status. They contend that some locum tenens workers, particularly those placed at a single facility for extended periods under facility-directed schedules, function economically as employees and would lose minimum wage, overtime, and organizing rights through a contractual label alone, citing the NLRB's and DOL's consistent position that written contracts cannot override the economic reality of a working relationship.