Politicians seem to have moved on to the next all-consuming issue (how to increase the nation’s debt level and decrease the deficit), leaving behind the latest all-consuming issue of health care reform, which dominated the debate in 2009 and early 2010. While much of the political and media attention on health care reform faded after President Obama signed the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA), the impact of the legislation on the health care industry America’s healthcare has the potential to be great. This is especially true for locum tenens physicians and the medical staffing industry.

First, PPACA will lead to a dramatic increase in the size of the American health care industry, as the expansions in Medicare and Medicaid, as well as the mandate that everyone get health insurance, mean that millions of Americans uninsured or underinsured will now have health insurance. Initially, this led some to conclude that a decline was in the offing for the locum tenens medical staffing industry, as more of the underinsured sought standard medical care rather than care at an emergency room, which is the largest employer of locum tenens. doctors locum tenens.

However, a more comprehensive analysis of the PPACA concludes that while emergency room care may decline as more people obtain insurance, expansions in funding for Medicare and Medicaid will mean that many health care facilities in The entire country will see an expansion in their client population, which will mean a substantial increase in the hiring of locum tenens physicians to serve the influx of new clients.

While the number of temporary to permanent positions should increase overall in the healthcare industry as a result of PPACA, the greatest demand for locum tenens physicians will come from rural areas. In fact, PPACA provides billions of dollars to community health care centers located in areas of the country with a shortage of available medical services, and rural areas will be the main regions to receive this funding given the relative scarcity of care providers. medicine in rural America.

Prior to the passage of PPACA, many rural medical facilities did not have the resources to staff a health care recruiting office; many will now be able to advertise needed medical positions and fill essential vacancies with locum tenens physicians, whose salaries can often be higher than that of a regular physician due to the temporary nature of their employment. Where once many rural medical facilities faced the daunting task of recruiting physicians to undesirable locations at low wages, many will now have deep pockets and be able to meet the salary demands of locum tenens physicians.

Ultimately, the precise effects of PPACA are unknown, as court challenges could derail the law’s eventual implementation, while major reforms within the law (for example, the individual mandate to buy insurance) that will affect to the locum tenens medical personnel industry will not begin until 2014. One thing is clear: