Four Questions to Ask Your Medical Staffing Company
1. Are their staff W2 employees or independent contractors?
You incur considerable risk using a staffing company which classifies its staff as contractors rather than W2 employees. Please see the following regarding a recent large judgment against Arise Staffing. “Client companies can suffer as well from IC (independent contractor) misclassification lawsuits, even when they are not the primary target. In the Arise cases, the client companies were likely to have incurred or continue to incur substantial legal costs themselves and may be subject to further legal claims. Moreover, where the client company itself directs or controls the workers found to be misclassified as ICs, it may be found to be a joint employer with the staffing company or the sole employer of the workers. In either instance, client companies run the risk of joint and several liability with the staffing company, or liability on its own, for violation of labor laws or for failure to withhold taxes and pay for unemployment. Indemnification clauses do not offer complete, or sometimes any, protection to corporate clients, especially where the staffing company does not have the financial resources to make the client whole … “
*** Even if you do not have legal troubles from using a staffing agency that is operating outside tax or labor laws, you may still be left high and dry should they get in trouble and be forced to shut down without notice. This happened recently to a large established staffing agency in Texas. ***
2. Is their staff trained to your specifications?
Any agency can hire staff, check licenses and place them with clients. But your needs may be much more specific. Many nurses have years of experience, but may not have specific training that meets your policies and procedures. Health care is a very broad and complex field, and fields such as hospice and more specifically, continuous care; require staff trained in these areas.
3. Is their staff screened, background checked?
Your agency should be doing pre-employment screening which includes OIG, EMR, criminal background checks and license verification. As further protection it is recommended that post-hire OIG and EMR checks are repeated monthly and criminal background checks are done yearly.