No guessing. No spin.
The Hematology-Oncology Rate & Negotiation Toolkit
50-state rate data, word-for-word scripts, and contract checklist: everything you need before the recruiter calls.
Get the Toolkit — $99Instant download. No subscription.
Built by a physician. No staffing agency affiliation. No referral fees.
Market Snapshot
Is your current rate above or below the median? The full 50-state breakdown is in the toolkit.
What's Inside
Not "a PDF." Six specific tools:
- Rate Benchmark Database
Hematology-Oncology rates by state and setting — urban cancer center and rural community hospital — 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. 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 BMT/transplant differentiation script — program-level coverage is a separate credentialing category
- The daily consult cap script — confirm the ceiling before you accept any inpatient assignment
- The infusion oversight scope script — confirm what's expected before quoting a rate
- Hematology-Oncology Leverage Points
The specific credentials and coverage capabilities that justify a higher rate:
- BMT and stem cell transplant program coverage requires subspecialty credentialing most hem-onc physicians don't hold — it commands 20–30% above the general rate and is rarely priced without being explicitly stated
- Combined inpatient consult plus infusion oversight is a dual-scope arrangement that should be priced as a bundled premium, not add-ons to a general rate
- Rural hem-onc rates ($413/hr national median) consistently exceed urban rates ($395/hr) — one of the few specialties where rural demand structurally outpaces urban
- Daily consult cap is the most important quality-of-life clause in any inpatient oncology contract — confirm and cap the ceiling before signing
- Contract Red Flag Checklist
Daily consult volume cap, hematologic emergency call expectations, EMR/CPOE system compatibility, malpractice tail scope for chemotherapy complications, and infusion protocol authority. One page, annotated. Open it while reviewing any contract.
- Agency Markup Framework
The math behind what the hospital actually pays for your shift. Rural cancer centers cannot bill for infusion services without physician coverage. When you know the approximate bill rate, "that's our maximum" means something different.
- Locum Tax Framework
The 1099 math most oncologists undercount: the S-corp threshold, the Solo 401(k) gap, and the minimum premium required to break even against a W-2 employed rate.
What It Looks Like on the Call
When a recruiter quotes $355/hr for a rural community cancer center covering inpatient consults and infusion oversight, this is the sentence from Section 2:
"The market median for combined rural hem-onc inpatient and infusion coverage in the South is $395/hr. Given the combined scope — inpatient consults plus infusion protocol oversight — I'd expect to be in the $420–440 range, and I'd want to confirm a daily consult ceiling before we discuss scheduling. Is there flexibility to structure it that way?"
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 didn't have the data to know whether I should. Neither did anyone I trained with. I built this because the information existed in federal wage surveys, peer-reviewed research, and 50 years of negotiation science, and it wasn't assembled anywhere a physician could use it before calling a recruiter back.
I started with surgery. Then I built the same data model and negotiation framework for the 22 specialties with the highest locum demand. The leverage points in each toolkit come from specialty-specific research. The scripts and the data are the same framework I use myself.
The agency has this organized. Now you do too.
Verify the Premise Before You Buy
Ask the recruiter whether combined inpatient consults and infusion oversight is priced separately or bundled into the base rate. Write down what they say.
That is the problem this PDF solves.
The Research Behind It
The economic analysis in this toolkit is grounded in Nobel Prize-winning research:
- Akerlof (1970, Nobel 2001): In markets where one side has better information, the uninformed party is systematically underpriced, not because they're naive, but because the market is structured that way.
- Spence (1973, Nobel 2001): Credentials only move your rate when the agency prices them. This toolkit shows you how to make that happen.
- Nash (1950, Nobel 1994): The fair split in any negotiation assumes equal information and equal skill. Neither assumption holds on a recruiter call.
The negotiation psychology section cites 17 peer-reviewed sources. This is not a blog post formatted as a PDF.
What It Costs in Context
- Consulting an attorney to review your locum contract: $350–$500/hr.
- Hiring a negotiation consultant: $3,000–$5,000.
- This toolkit: $99. One successful negotiation adds $15,000+ annually.
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
Sourced from BLS OEWS public data and CMS geographic adjustment factors, processed through a locum-adjusted model. Not derived from agency-reported data.