The Emergency Medicine Rate & Negotiation Toolkit
Know your number before you call back.
The market benchmark. Your assignment-adjusted target. Your walkaway—plus the scripts and assignment playbook to use them.
Get the Toolkit — $992026 Edition · 46–48 pages · Instant download · No subscription.
One underpriced shift can cost more than this toolkit. A $10/hr improvement on one 10-hour shift covers the $99 cost.
Built by a U.S. general surgery physician. No staffing agency affiliation. No referral fees.
Preview the actual guide
See exactly what you're buying.
The sample contains three pages drawn directly from this specialty's 2026 toolkit: the cover, the actual national and regional benchmark page, and a specialty-specific leverage page.
Open the three-page sample →No email required. Real toolkit pages—not a separate brochure.
Market Snapshot
Is your current rate above or below the median? The full 50-state breakdown is in the toolkit.
Built for the decision in front of you
Use the same toolkit at three high-stakes moments.
First locum assignment
Use a clear path through the interview, credentialing, first shift, assignment problems, and exit.
Offer or contract in hand
Set the counter, use the exact language, and review the terms before the assignment becomes expensive to unwind.
Current assignment or renewal
Recalculate the effective rate, identify work creep, and rewrite the terms that mattered in practice.
What's Inside
A complete assignment toolkit:
- Rate Benchmark Database
Emergency Medicine rates by state and setting — urban hospital and rural/critical access) at the 25th, 50th, 75th, and 90th percentile. Fifty states. The number you need before you call the recruiter back.
- Recruiter Call Scripts
Word-for-word. Not "be confident." The exact sentences:
- The opening anchor when you've received a below-market offer
- The counter when they say "this is our standard rate"
- The script when they create time pressure ("I need an answer by 5 pm")
- The intangibles trade when the hourly is locked
- The renewal script when they try to roll your old rate forward as a new offer
- Emergency Medicine Leverage Points
The specific EM credentials, coverage types, and shift structures that justify a higher rate, and how to state them on the call:
- Single-coverage (solo physician) at a rural or critical access ED consistently commands $30–60/hr above dual-coverage urban shifts; make the coverage model explicit before quoting a number
- Pediatric EM experience or PEDS certification opens Level I and II trauma centers that rural generalists cannot cover, with its own rate tier
- Overnight hawk shifts (11pm–7am) or 24-hr rural solo coverage command $40–80/hr above standard day shift rates and should never be bundled into a flat rate
- ATLS instructor status, ultrasound-guided procedures, and STEMI/stroke activation experience each reduce your substitutability; state them explicitly when the recruiter says the rate is standard
- Contract Red Flag Checklist
The minimum hours guarantee, call compensation, malpractice tail, and non-compete language that quietly cut into a strong headline rate. One page, annotated, open it while reviewing a contract.
- Agency Markup Framework
The math behind what the hospital is actually paying for your shift. Knowing the approximate bill rate changes how you respond to "that's our maximum."
- Locum Tax Framework
The 1099 math most physicians undercount: the S-corp threshold, the Solo 401(k) gap, the minimum premium required to break even against a W-2 rate.
- Licensing & Credentialing Roadmap
The licenses, registrations, facility privileges, documents, start gates, and timelines required for the assignment.
- From Signed Contract to Final Shift
A specialty-specific first-shift gate, assignment escalation scripts, a stay/pause/leave framework, and a final-shift checklist.
What It Looks Like on the Call
When a recruiter quotes $220/hr for a single-coverage EM shift, this is the sentence from Section 2:
"The market median for single-coverage emergency medicine in this region is $257/hr. With my background covering solo, I'd expect to be in the $275–$295 range. Is there flexibility to get there?"
You change the numbers to match your state. You say it. That is the product.
Who Built This
For years I took every rate I was offered without pushing back. Not because I was naive. I did not have the data to know whether I should. Neither did anyone I trained with.
I built the same rate model and negotiation framework across 22 physician specialties, then added the contract, credentialing, first-shift, and assignment protections I would want before accepting the work myself.
The agency has this organized. Now you do too.
Built on Evidence, Written for the Call
The toolkit combines 50-state benchmark data, specialty-specific assignment research, current licensing and tax guidance, and 17 peer-reviewed negotiation sources. The research establishes the framework; the product gives you the number, language, and checklists to act on it.
What $99 Has to Do
One $10/hr improvement on one 10-hour shift covers the full price. One avoided unpaid hour can do the same. Every protected shift, corrected contract term, or future renewal comes after that.
46–48-page PDF · Instant download · No subscription.
One Honest Limitation
This will not help you if you are already negotiating above the 75th percentile for your specialty and state. If you don't know what percentile your current rate is, that is the problem this solves.
About the Data
Based on BLS OEWS public data and CMS geographic adjustment factors, processed through a locum-adjusted model, calibrated and validated against publicly posted rates and observations.