The other day a resident asked me how using a Farr Healthcare, Inc. for physiatry recruitment is different than pursuing positions on her own.

First, some employers use Farr Healthcare, Inc. exclusively for their physiatry recruitment.  You might be missing out on a practice opportunity unless you consider openings with Farr Healthcare.  Farr Healthcare has been in business for 30+ years so most physiatrists know us and reach out to us when they want to add a physiatrist.  This familiarity is fostered by Farr Healthcare’s reaching out to senior residents and fellows each year.

Saving time is important to everyone.  The list of physiatry practice opportunities on the Farr Healthcare website is one of the most comprehensive on the web so it can save you time in physiatry recruitment practice search.  It also has some of the most comprehensive information about each practice opportunity.  One of the goals of Farr Healthcare is to provide you with as comprehensive information upfront so you can identify the openings of most interest to you and not waste your time with openings that don’t turn out to be what’s of interest to you.  We typically provide information about the type of affiliation, the means of compensation and the compensation amount.

With its 30+ years of physiatry recruitment experience, Farr Healthcare, Inc. can help you identify which practice opportunities are the best match for your skills and interests.  We know the field of physiatry better than the vast majority of recruitment firms and this combined with the knowledge of the recruitment environment provides you with a wealth of advice be it your personal interests, your skills, your geographic preferences, your financial and affiliation interests, etc.  We want to know your career goals and will do our best to connect you with employers with similar interests during your physiatry recruitment experience.

A feature of the Farr Healthcare website is that you can subscribe to a service on the website that alerts you as soon as a new physiatry practice opportunity arises.  We post practice opportunities on our website as soon as they become available so checking it from time to time might also be of interest.

If you contact Farr Healthcare, we will ask you what states or areas of the country are of interest and what type of physiatry you want.  We will then keep you posted on practice opportunities that arise that are a match.  We are able to do this better than most anyone because we know the particulars of the physiatry specialty having recruited in it exclusively for so long.  We won’t contact you about just any practice opportunity, only the ones that match your interests.

If you’re not sure if your curriculum vitae is good or not, Farr Healthcare will be glad to review it and provide advice.  If you provide us with your curriculum vitae with interest in a practice opportunity, we review it and let you know if there’s a glaring error such as missing contact information, time gaps, typo’s, etc.  This alone can be the difference between you getting a job offer or not during your physiatry recruitment process.

One of the best advantages of working with Farr Healthcare is that we will make sure that the employer is aware of your interest and acts upon it.  Most practices are very busy so they don’t have much time to devote to physiatry recruitment.  They sometimes lag in follow-up. Farr Healthcare contacts the employers weekly if not more often about you.

Another advantage of working with Farr Healthcare is that we act as your cheerleader.  We tell employers about your positive features.  We know the employer well enough to also let them know how your plus’s match the candidate profile they’re seeking in their physiatry recruitment.  Especially during these Covid times when more interviews are by Zoom and it’s harder for you to show your personality, it is very helpful to have an aide like Farr Healthcare to promote you.

Another advantage is that we move the physiatry recruitment process along for you.  We often do so by interviewing you when you first express interest in an opening.  Rather than just having a curriculum vitae, this interview provides the employer with more information.  Given this additional information, the employer is more apt to contact you without hesitation.  Otherwise, your curriculum vitae can sit on an employer’s desk perhaps for weeks without review.

The same holds true for reference checking.  Even after an employer has seen your curriculum vitae and the interview results of you by Farr Healthcare, they may be busy and not act as promptly as you would think.  Farr Healthcare prompts employers to let us do reference checking as a means to giving them what hopefully be more positive information about you to the end of wanting to continue contact with you in their physiatry recruitment.

If requested, Farr Healthcare will provide you with helpful feedback on your interviewing skills.  We’re open to interviewing you and giving you advice on how your interview skills might be improved.  If we ask for an interview, you can use this experience as practice for your interviews with employers.

Farr Healthcare can help you during the negotiation process although we typically don’t act as the go-between. Instead, you can deal directly with the employer to minimize any miscommunications and maximize your relationship with the employer from day one.

With all these advantages, please also note that you’re not tied to just using Farr Healthcare for your practice search.  There is no commitment on your part to Farr Healthcare during the physiatry recruitment process.  Farr Healthcare has agreements with the employers to help with their recruitment.  Far Healthcare’s roots are working for a national rehab provider so our goals are to make the employer and YOU happy so that you will stay with the employer long-term.  We provide all these services without a cost to you.

Whether you’re a resident who’s not sure what questions to ask to secure your ideal position or you’re an experienced physiatrist who knows what you want, Farr Healthcare can provide you with guidance or provide information from the employer to make sure a position fits your interests and your physiatry recruitment practice search is efficient and effective.

Please check  out our website, www.farrhealthcare.com

How much do you know about the various aspects of physiatry recruitment to include compensation, contracts, practice management?

Take this quiz and find out!

QUESTIONS

Question #1.   Should you hire someone with a personality like yours?

Question #2.   What are the two major reasons doctors leave their employer?

Question #3.   How long does the average practice search take?

Question #4.   Can a restrictive covenant apply to part-time work?

Question #5.   What was the average physiatry compensation in 2019?

Question #6.   When you leave a practice what items might you have to repay?

Question#7.   What are the 3 main factors in determining the value of the practice in a buy-in agreement?

Question #8.  What should you do to resolve insurance denials?

ANSWERS

Answer #1.  No.  Although it would seem that you should because you think you would get along better, studies show that this is not always the case.  And, hiring someone with a personality unlike your personality is good in that they will have a different perspective which will broaden your practice’s abilities.

Answer #2.  Contract loopholes and low compensation are the two major reasons doctors leave their employer.

Answer #3.  The average practice search takes 6 months.  This considers the time to find the physiatrist, interviewing, negotiation, licensing, etc.

Answer #4.  Yes.  Part-time jobs can also be considered for restrictive covenant clauses.

Answer #5.  The average physiatry compensation in 2019 was $306,000.

Answer #6.  Sign-on bonus, recruitment stipends, relocation, student assistance clauses often include requirements that you must repay them if you leave before a certain amount of time.

Answer #7.  The 3 main factors in determining the value of the practice in a buy-in agreement are tangible assets, accounts receivable and good will.

Answer #8.  Phone calling is often necessary to resolve insurance denials.  It can be stressful and time consuming but it often resolves insurance denials.

How Covid Has Changed the Employer’s Physiatry Search

Covid requires some tweaking of the employer’s search for a new physiatrist.  First, less employers are hiring PM&R doctors during Covid.  So hats off to those employers who have the financial ability to add a physician medicine and rehabilitation physician!  If you’re seeking a new physiatry graduate, it should be easier to recruit from the standpoint of supply and demand although as usual many PM&R residents go onto fellowships.  Hiring an experienced physicial med and rehab doctor may be easier or more difficult.  If you’re in an urban area that has been hard hit by Covid, there probably is a greater supply of physiatrists.  If you’re in a suburban or rural area, I think most physiatrists are deciding to stay put until Covid is over.

In most ways, the physiatry recruitment process will be more difficult.  There is an AAPMR Job Fair but it will be virtual so who knows if it will be more or less effective than in person.  As most of the process will be by phone and electronic, it maybe more time-consuming and most definitely will require more discernment to identify if the PM&R candidate is right for your practice.  The travel difficulties will make the site visit more important because follow-up visits will most likely not occur during Covid.  Please make sure that you plan it well to include everything and everyone that are important to you and the physical medicine and rehabilitation candidate’s ultimate hiring decision.  Farr Healthcare, Inc. can help greatly in this process.

The Impact of Covid on Physiatry Recruitment

I hope you, your families and your practices are doing as best as can be expected during these difficult times.

Physiatry recruitment continues in these Corona Virus times!  Positions may not actually start until after the world comes back to life but some entities continue to want to add physiatrists.  These are mostly national rehab entities and some private practices.  On the other hand, most interventional practices have put their openings on hold.

Recruitment continues.  Some of the hiring entities are meeting with the interested doctors via Zoom meetings.  Entities understand that the recruitment process to include contract negotiation and credentialling takes quite awhile so they continue to recruit so as to not lose time.

I have received some calls from physiatrists for non-clinical or telemedicine positions but unfortunately I don’t have any such openings.  All of the positions I represent are clinical positions.

Be well!

High demand and low supply increases the competition to find a doctor which creates the usefulness of a physiatry recruitment firm. Recruitment firms provide many useful services to include sourcing, screening, qualifying, appointment-setting, closing, interview prepping, debriefing, offer negotiation and counteroffer-defense.  Many of these services often go unnoticed by either the physician candidate or the hiring entity.  The networking capabilities of a physician recruitment firm that has been doing solely physical medicine and rehabilitation recruitment for 20+ years like Farr Healthcare, Inc. provides an employer with a unique resource and great capability and some might even say priceless advantage.

Through the various efforts of a PM&R recruitment firm, a doctor who is in the mid-career stage and happy with their work may be convinced to take a new position.  This result would not be possible through the simple placement of an ad or job board posting.  Experienced recruiters such as Farr Healthcare, Inc. are able to identify the features of the practice opportunity and match it with candidates seeking those benefits.

Recruiters can help a resident who is not experienced in the practice search process navigate it efficiently and effectively.  I often talk with residents who don’t know the difference between an independent contractor and an employee so a recruiter can explain the terms.  This behind-the-scenes discussion can help steer a physiatrist to a practice opportunity the physician might never consider otherwise.

Due to their years of experience a physiatry recruiter can often identify if a candidate is truly interested or not and save the employer otherwise wasted time  with the candidate.   Sometimes doctor candidates are testing the waters but not ready to make a move.  Sometimes a doctor will tell a recruiter information that they wouldn’t say directly to the hiring entity.

The overall cost of physician turnover is a huge financial cost.  The recruitment fee pales in comparison to the revenues lost without a physician on staff.   Yet another reason to hire well to retain physiatrists for years.

Background of Linda Farr

A resident just asked me to describe Farr Healthcare, Inc. physiatry recruitment services.    In a nutshell, my father was a doctor and I’ve been doing physician recruitment since I finished graduate school.  I became involved in physiatry when I was hired as Director, Physician Recruitment for Continental Medical Systems, formerly the nation’s largest physical medicine and rehab provider where I recruited the Medical Directors for 60-bed rehab hospitals across the country.  I was employed by the company as opposed to being an independent contractor therefore both the company and the contracted doctors had to be happy in order for me to maintain my job.  I bring this same mentality to my physiatry recruitment firm.

History

The company was bought out by HealthSouth in the late 90’s at which time I started my own physiatry recruitment business.  All I do is recruit physiatrists, not any other specialties, and as I’ve been doing so for 20 years, I’m familiar with most of the PM&R doctors, facilities and companies.  I was the only physician recruiter to speak at the annual AAPMR meeting for 4 years.

How the physician recruitment service works

The physician recruitment service is free to you; the employer/facility I’m working with pays me.  Once you tell me what and where you’re interested in, then I’ll contact you with a comprehensive description of the physical medicine and rehabilitation openings that are a match.  I’ll request your cv if you’re interested which I then provide to the PM&R employer.  Some employers/facilities only work with me.  I’m able to provide details which you might not otherwise secure when applying for a physiatry job.  I’m also often able to tell you insider information about the rehab employer/facility. Once I provide your cv to an employer, you and the employer mostly work together directly.  If you have questions along the way, I can be helpful.  I will also work to make sure the process continues expeditiously.  If you’re pursuing multiple physiatry practice opportunities through me, your references only have to give one reference as I’ll share them with the practice opportunities.  I hope this explanation helps.  You can find out all about me and my services to include an audiovisual presentation on my home page, www.farrhealthcare.com.  Feel free to contact me with any questions.

It’s my world, the world of physician recruitment, but here’s some information that maybe new to you.

Physician recruiters typically charge $20,000+ to recruit a doctor.  A hiring entity signs a contract with the physiatry recruiter.  The fee and contract terms include the identification of doctors, reference checking, helping coordinate communications between the doctors and the hiring entity, etc.  It does not include the cost of bringing in the doctor(s) in to interview.

It is a tax-deductible expense.  It is a lot of money but the time value of having manpower, in hopefully a short time than if you recruited yourself, is a consideration.  Plus, if you use a physician recruiter experienced in physiatry recruitment, then he/she may very well have knowledge of the candidate’s background and interests that the hiring entity might not.  Also, an experienced recruiter has the skills to detect good candidates from less good candidates as a result of developed listening skills.

There are just a few physiatry recruitment firms.  It is best to use a physiatry recruitment firm because they know more about the physiatrists and the lingo of physiatry terms and have more physiatry practice candidates and opportunities.

Sometimes, the hiring entity wants to hire a locum tenens doctor.  Locum tenens means to work on a temporary basis.  It can be to cover you during a vacation, while away for CME, until you find a permanent doctor, etc.  Locum tenens doctors usually expect $750/day – $1,000/day.

Our firm also helps find locum tenens doctors.  On top of the reimbursement, locum tenens doctors need housing and, if the term is for a few weeks or more, transportation costs back to his/her home every so often.  If the locum tenens doctor does not have or can not obtain professional malpractice insurance, then the hiring entity will need to secure it for him/her.  If the hiring entity can not get professional malpractice insurance for the locum tenens doctor, then the locum tenens recruitment firm can provide this insurance.

11.  Make the doctor candidate feel like they’re the only one.

12.  Discussion during the first visit – discuss any start-up support, how attractive the job is, present the salary and/or guarantee and/or stipend range, benefits

13.  The interview process should be no more than 2 trips otherwise you may seem indecisive.  The more people in the interview process, the more confusing it is to the doctor candidate.  Do not include someone in the second interview that wasn’t in the first interview if at all possible.

14.  Give a deadline to contract signature.  Phone the doctor candidate during this time to stay in touch.  A drop-dead date of 2 weeks from the contract presentation is reasonable.

15.  Once the contract is signed, send a congratulatory gift, invite the physician and spouse for a getaway weekend to get to know the medical staff and community.   Send announcements to department heads, community doctors, healthcare/political organizations, order stationery and business cards, purchase a subscription to the local newspaper for the doctor and plan a welcome reception.

TO BE CONTINUED

The best way to recruit for difficult geographic regions is to offer a great package deal, with partnership option after the 1^st year.   The offer should include a sign-on bonus, relocation reimbursement,  health insurance/life insurance/long term disability, the ability to keep 70% of what they collect, plus a guarantee of a base salary until they are actually receiving reimbursement for their services (probably 2 months),  4 weeks vacation and 1 week CME, plus a CME allowance.  Keep in mind that a lot of doctors don’t want a partnership – they simply want to share overhead and build the practice.  That is where the LLC comes in handy.  You can all practice under an umbrella wherein you all share expenses, but you eat what you kill.  That is an incentive to really work hard to build your part of the practice, and it will keep physicians there long-term.

This blog was contributed by Elizabeth Lee, President, PRS, Inc, a physiatry practice management and billing company in TX, [email protected], 800-324-4777.