SECTIONS 2418 - California Statutes

BUSINESS AND PROFESSIONS CODE

SECTION 2418

2418. (a) The Legislature hereby finds and declares all of the
following:
(1) The State of California is facing a growing crisis in
physician supply due, in part, to difficulties in recruiting and
retaining physicians.
(2) This crisis is particularly harsh for facilities operated by
the state and local governments due to the difficulties of funding
full-time medical staff.
(3) Locum tenens physicians provide a critical source of medical
services that virtually all hospitals in California use at one time
or another every year.
(4) The great majority of California hospitals, and many medical
groups and other providers, including many state-supported
facilities, use locum tenens agencies either continuously or from
time to time to help fill their medical staffing needs.
(5) Most locum tenens agencies are barred from employing
physicians under the corporate practice doctrine (Article 18
(commencing with Section 2400)) and, thus, do not employ the
physicians whose locum tenens services they arrange.
(b) Notwithstanding any other provision of law, a "locum tenens
agency" shall not be deemed to be an employer, employment agency,
employment counseling service, job listing service, nurse's registry,
temporary services employer, or leasing employer of a licensee.
(c) A locum tenens agency is an individual or entity that meets
all of the following requirements:
(1) Contracts with clients or customers to identify licensees
willing to perform locum tenens services and to arrange for the
licensees to perform locum tenens services for the clients or
customers on a temporary, nonpermanent basis .
(2) Arranges for the licensees to perform locum tenens services
only to those clients and customers that are legally authorized to
enter into independent contractor arrangements with licensees.
(3) Does not determine the rates of payment made to a licensee
providing locum tenens services, or determine the hours of work by
the licensee.
(4) Receives payment directly from its clients or customers for
its services which, to the degree that the payment includes payment
for the locum tenens services, remits the payment for the locum
tenens services in full directly to the licensee.
(5) Charges fees that are reasonably related to the value of the
services that the locum tenens agency provides its clients and
customers, and that are in no way related to the quantity or value of
locum tenens services provided by the licensee. This section does
not prohibit a locum tenens agency from charging its clients and
customers based on the number of days or hours that the locum tenens
services are provided or based on the particular speciality of the
locum tenens services.
(d) A locum tenens agency shall not employ a licensee to perform
locum tenens services, nor shall it interfere with or attempt to
influence the clinical judgment of a licensee providing locum tenens
services.
(e) It shall be a rebuttable presumption that the relationship
between the client or customer of the locum tenens agency and the
licensee providing locum tenens services is one of an independent
contractor, pursuant to Section 656 of the Unemployment Insurance
Code.
(f) For purposes of this section, "licensee" means a physician and
surgeon licensed under this chapter.
(g) It is the intent of the Legislature that this section confirm
and be declaratory of, rather than change, existing law.
(h) Nothing in this section shall apply to a category of health
care professionals other than those specified.