UMEM Educational Pearls

Category: Administration

Title: Employee or Independent Contractor?

Keywords: employee, independent contractor, employment, job market (PubMed Search)

Posted: 1/12/2024 by Steve Schenkel, MD (Emailed: 2/28/2024) (Updated: 2/28/2024)
Click here to contact Steve Schenkel, MD

The relationship between an Emergency Physician and the hiring group (whether large or small) may be one of employer-employee or contactor-independent contractor. There are legal job protections for employees that don’t exist for independent contractors. There are also regulations that define an independent contractor. Enforcement of these regulations varies but may be increasing. This has implications for the Emergency Medicine job market. We have the highest percentage of independent contractors of any medical specialty. 

See more at Leon Adelman’s Emergency Medicine Workforce Newsletter, here https://emworkforce.substack.com/p/thousands-of-employed-emergency-physicians