The Psychiatry Rate & Negotiation Toolkit

What's Inside

Not "a PDF." Six specific tools:

1. Rate Benchmark Database

   Psychiatry rates by state and setting (inpatient, outpatient, and telepsychiatry) at the 25th, 50th, 75th, and 90th percentile. Fifty states. The number you need before you call the recruiter back.

2. 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
3. Psychiatry Leverage Points

   The specific credentials and coverage types that justify a higher rate, and how to state them on the call:

   • Inpatient acute psychiatric unit coverage commands 15–25% premium over outpatient and telepsychiatry rates
   • Forensic experience (competency evaluations, civil commitment hearings) is scarce and commands $300–400/hr at some facilities
   • ECT administration or complex medication management (clozapine monitoring) significantly reduces your substitutability by APPs
   • Bilingual fluency (especially Spanish) dramatically expands available assignments and negotiating power in urban markets
4. Contract Red Flag Checklist

   The telehealth scope limitations, patient panel caps, 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.

5. 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."

6. 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.

What It Looks Like on the Call

When a recruiter quotes $195/hr for inpatient psychiatry coverage, this is the sentence from Section 2:

"The market median for inpatient psychiatry coverage in this region is $214/hr. With my acute unit experience and complex medication management background, I'd expect to be in the $245–$270 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 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.

— General Surgery MD

Verify the Premise Before You Buy

Call three locum agencies and ask what their bill rate is for psychiatry coverage. Write down how many give you a number.

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 covers it in the first call.

One Honest Limitation

This will not help you if you are already negotiating above the 75th percentile for your specialty and state. Top-quartile rate: skip it, you don't need it.

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.