Health coverage options for locum tenens physicians: What every 1099 should know

One of the best parts of working as a locum tenens physician is the flexibility and freedom to choose when and where you work. That independence also allows you to select the healthcare coverage that best fits your unique lifestyle, travel schedule, and financial goals.

To help make that process easier, Weatherby Healthcare partnered with Leavitt Insurance Group to discuss healthcare options available for 1099 physicians—and how to find the coverage that works best for you—in this 17-minute webinar.

Below is a summary of what Leavitt’s experts shared about marketplace, private, short-term, and supplemental plans, along with bundled coverage options designed specifically for locum tenens physicians.

1. Marketplace (ACA) and individual family plans

For many providers, the Marketplace or ACA Individual Family Plans (IFPs) are good starting points. These are government-regulated, major medical plans available in all 50 states, covering essential benefits such as hospital care, prescriptions, and mental health services.

• Great for providers who may qualify for income-based subsidies that lower premiums or even offer zero-cost options.

• Available from major carriers such as Blue Cross Blue Shield, Cigna, and UnitedHealthcare.

• No health exclusions or medical questions during enrollment.

• Even if you earn too much to qualify for subsidies, these plans can still be a stable option for long-term coverage.

2. Private individual plans

If you prefer more flexibility or travel frequently between states, a private individual plan may be a better fit. These are purchased directly from the insurance carrier, not through the federal or state exchange.

• Ideal for high-income earners or those who want broader network access.

• Premiums aren’t subsidized but can offer better provider networks and national portability.

• A strong option for physicians who move between assignments or practice in multiple states, like many locum physicians.

3. Short-term medical coverage

Short-term medical plans are popular among locum tenens physicians who need temporary coverage between assignments or outside of open enrollment periods.

• Coverage typically lasts 30–120 days, though some carriers now offer up to 360 days.

• Lower monthly premiums, but benefits are limited and may not cover preexisting conditions or preventive care.

• Best for healthy individuals who want protection against large, unexpected medical bills.

Tip: Review each carrier’s terms closely since coverage varies by state and provider.

4. Ancillary and supplemental coverage

In addition to a medical plan, many independent physicians add ancillary coverage for extra protection and peace of mind. These can include:

• Dental and vision plans for preventative and major care.

• Accident insurance to help cover emergency visits, fractures, and ambulance costs.

• Critical illness coverage that pays a lump sum if you experience a major health event like cancer, stroke, or heart attack.

• Hospital indemnity plans that provide daily cash benefits during inpatient stays.

These add-ons typically pair well with high-deductible or HSA-eligible plans.

5. Income protection and life insurance

As a 1099 contractor, you don’t receive employer-sponsored disability or life insurance, so income protection and life insurance plans can provide additional benefits.

• Short-term and long-term disability coverage can replace a portion of your income if you’re unable to work.

• Life insurance options include term or whole life policies with flexible riders.

These products can help ensure financial stability in the event of illness, injury, or loss of income.

6. Tailored coverage bundles for locum tenens physicians

Locum physicians may also be interested in bundled solutions specifically designed for 1099 providers. Various insurance providers may offer different types of bundles, typically combining medical, dental, income protection, and supplemental coverage into a single, easy-to-manage package.

Examples offered by the Leavitt Group include:

• Essential Care Bundle: ACA plan + dental/vision + income protection (ideal for full-time providers).

• Everyday Coverage Bundle: Accident + hospital + vision + income protection (for part-time or hourly work).

• Short-Term Safety Net: Short-term medical + hospital indemnity + critical illness + telehealth.

• Virtual First Protection: Direct primary care, pharmacy access, mental health services, and catastrophic coverage.

• Comprehensive Supplemental Package: Combines accident, hospital, income protection, and life insurance for complete peace of mind.

These bundles are flexible and can be customized to meet your specific needs and assignment schedule.

Healthcare options for locum tenens physicians

Choosing health coverage as a 1099 provider gives you the flexibility to find a plan that truly fits your lifestyle. Whether you’re looking for short-term coverage between assignments or a comprehensive bundle for full-time practice, there are plenty of tailored solutions designed to support the locum way of life.

Leavitt advisors are licensed in all 50 states, specialize in working with 1099 providers, and their services are completely free to use.

For assistance, call 435-233-2406, email support@enroll365.com, or visit enroll365.org.

Full webinar transcript

Rachel (Weatherby Healthcare): Hello, I'm Rachel with Weatherby Healthcare. We've teamed up with Leavitt Insurance to present information on healthcare plans on the marketplace and other options. I'll now turn the time over to Benjamin Smith to jump into the information.

Benjamin Smith: So some of the products that we will be discussing today. First product that we'll go over is the marketplace and IFP that's short for individual family plans, but marketplace and IFP products will then go into private individual plans. And then from there, short term medical insurance. And then add on ancillary coverage. Ancillary, or in other words, ancillary is think of dental, vision, short term disability, long term disability. In some cases, life insurance, income protection, things like that. And then the last slide is the unique bundled solutions. We're excited about that slide and some of the products there.

And if any, very, very high level, we're excited to go into all this with you today. So we're going to go through the marketplace or in parentheses ACA and IFP medical plans. So this is great for providers who qualify for subsidies.

Marketplace exchange plans

So marketplace plans are in other words, on exchange government subsidized major medical plans. We have them available in all 50 states. There's no health questions or exclusions, covers essential benefits like hospital, prescription and mental health and many other services. It's based on income. Many qualify for reduced premiums or zero dollar plans. That's really dependent though on income, of course, so marketplace on exchange government subsidized plans. In other words, are sometimes considered as Obamacare. That may be something that you may be familiar with or have heard.

These are individual plans, individual and family plans that are built out by national big carriers, also regional smaller carriers think like Cigna Healthcare, Blue Cross Blue Shield, United Healthcare. They all have individual on exchange marketplace plans. And depending on income, of course, in some scenarios, you may have the ability to enroll in these plans. You can enroll in them, regardless, but you may if you enroll in them and your income is a certain threshold, you may be eligible for government subsidies of those plans.

So that's the as a high overview. These are great plans, but they, you know, very much are dependent on income in a lot of scenarios.

Now there are we have many providers, locum tenens, business owners that are on these plans that are higher income earners because the products are so great that they don't necessarily qualify for subsidies to the government, but they're still paying the premium. These premiums are relatively, you know, you say affordable and a lot of people push back and say what's affordable today in relation to just health care as a whole. They are relatively affordable. You're setting aside and not accounting for the subsidies. So these plans are available to everyone.

They may be a little bit more cost friendly or advantageous to your to your wallet if your income is at a certain threshold. Our people and our our advisors here can help determine that in real time. We have a lot of great quoting tools that will help decipher that and provide insight to that process and shopping experience.

Private individual plans

So going on to the next, we have private individual plans. So in a lot of cases, these are for high income earners or those who want more network flexibility and may not necessarily be eligible for tax credits or don't like the plan designs of the ACA Marketplace on exchange plans. So plan overview. So the private individual plans. These are carrier direct, narrow network and broad network major medical plans. So in the previous two slides we were covering on exchange. These are off exchange plans.

So you instead of purchasing these through the federal government's Obamacare exchange or the state exchange that you may live in. These are off exchange plans. Or in other words, these are plans that you buy directly from the carrier and or the insurers, payer, carrier. Sometimes these include larger networks and national coverage. So they are more portable or travel friendly if you're on the go a lot. Now some of the, not some, one of the downsides here is that the premiums are not subsidized by government tax credits, but they are often better for those making or at or above the 400 percent federal poverty line.

And it does depending on the carrier. Obviously there's some caveats as to where you live or which carrier you're enrolled in. But in some scenarios, these plans offer continuity of coverage when moving across different state lines.

For example, here's an example cost in the right hand corner. 45 year old single male and the disclosure disclaimer here is price varies by state and demographics. But in this scenario specifically, it's a $532.25 premium on the national PHCS network, which is a network that a lot of larger carriers like United Health Care and Aetna utilize for their national footprint.

Short-term coverage plans

So short term, short term medical insurance in a lot of scenarios. This is viewed as gap coverage between assignments or while waiting for open enrollment.

So short term medical, you have a lot of the big carriers that offer these products. United Health Care, Cigna, Blue Cross Blue Shield and many more carriers. Generally speaking, these are lower cost temporary coverage, think 30 to 120 days depending on state.

That's recently changed, though, a lot of carriers now. It's not official, but it's been announced. And so that's why we didn't put this in the slide, but it has been announced in the last couple days that a handful of carriers are actually going to be extending those short term plans to 360 days in some cases. So almost a full year, which is great. A lot of these plans are lower in cost, generally speaking, and are competitive product offerings. So some of the downsides, though, one specifically being they may not cover preexisting conditions or just preventative care in general. So if you're just wanting to go to see your physician or primary care doc, these plans may not have coverage there. Or if you have a preexisting condition or ailment, sickness and you're being treated for that once you've enrolled in this plan, it may not cover those costs. Some carriers differentiate themselves and may accept certain preexisting conditions or may accept some preventative care.

But it's always just important to check if this is an option that you're wanting to evaluate. It's always just safe to check the T's and C's or the terms and conditions at the carrier level of the specific product. Our team obviously is here to help do that and facilitate that evaluation.

They are not considered minimum essential coverage under federal guidelines. So that's the acronym for that's MEC. So a lot of times in order to check that MEC, you have certain as a health plan or health insurance provider, there are certain services that you have to offer in the product. The last two slides that we've been covering, those plans are both, they both meet, or I guess those product offerings meet those MEC guidelines. In this case, though, depending on the short term plan that you go with, they may have some of those MEC requirements, but they're not going to have all of them. And so they are not considered MEC compliant under the federal guidelines as they stand today.

So that's something also to be considerate of, for example, a lot of health plans in order to be MEC or meet minimum essential coverage compliant. They require covering pre-existing conditions and preventative care. So those are just two examples. And these plans, though, really kind of getting back to the pros are ideal for healthy individuals who need basic protection. So you're just wanting to, you know, ensure that you are protecting yourself against a big claim or not necessarily a claim, but a big health scare that could translate into a big dollar claim.

These are ideal for those individuals that are healthy. They typically travel well with you. They're portable in a lot of ways and they're really a great product. Like all things, though, there's the right population that should be using these. And maybe if you're sicker or you have underlying conditions, this may not be the best option. An example cost, though, for a product like this, obviously the disclaimer is price varies by state and demographics, but for a 45-year-old single male, it would be an $85 monthly premium. And I should clarify that these figures are all monthly premiums. They're not annualized, but in this case, this would be for a plan like this. It would be an $85 monthly premium.

Ancillary coverage options

So add on ancillary coverage. We've kind of at a high level covered the medical side, the major medical side. So we're going to dive into some of the ancillary coverages that you could, in addition to your other major medical, you could add on. So think of dental, vision, accident, critical illness, income protection, and many, many more. So optional add on coverage when it comes to dental and vision. So with dental and vision, you can keep preventative and major care accessible for dental and vision. Vision, not so much. You don't see vision as much more times than not.

Dental is the area where you see a little bit more high cost issues as it relates to your oral health or your teeth. And so all of these plans on the dental side are going to have cleanings, fillings, crowns, root canals included. Now there's, you know, in some scenarios, there's waiting periods. And so once again, it's always important just with insurance carriers to be very diligent about reading the terms and conditions within their products. And if there's waiting periods, that's an important call out and thing to be mindful of. Our team is here to help that and help you through that experience.

On the vision side, you're going to have eye exams, lenses, glasses, contacts, coverages or dollar amounts that are set aside for those lenses, glasses, contacts, and then you'll have coverage for eye exams. In a lot of scenarios, you're going to have plans available as low as $10 to $20 a month.

You're going to have national networks with Delta Dental, VSP, Guardian, etc. So going to the example cost for a 45 year old single male. Prices obviously vary by state and demographics, but for dental, in this scenario would be a $33.82 a month premium for the dental and a $12.17 per month premium for the vision.

Supplemental coverage plans

So optional add on coverage, supplemental plans. So protect against the unexpected. So what that looks like is accident insurance. Accident insurance helps cover ER visits, ambulance, fractures, stitches. Sample cost in this scenario would be $28.17 per month for an accident plan.

The way these plans usually work is with an accident plan, something happens, they have a list of what they would consider an accident. You go in, you would pay for it, then you would submit the claim showing that you had an accident plan. It could even be as much that your major medical plan covers that you have a co-pay with your major medical plan. But if you show proof that there was a visit to the ER, depending on the carrier of course, but in most scenarios, the accident insurance carrier is going to cut you a check depending on the coverage limits that you went with.

Critical illness healthcare plans

Next is critical illness. So the way this works is you'll have a lump sum payout for cancer, stroke or heart attack. And that's just once again associated with substantiating and showing proof that that happened to you specifically. But sample costs for a 45 year old male in this scenario would be $19.63 per month.

Hospital indemnity plans

And then the last is hospital indemnity. The way most of the hospital indemnity plans work is a daily cash benefit for inpatient stays. So depending on there's limits to that of course, terms and conditions, we're beating this drum fairly consistently. But it's important to read those. But the way this works is based on the terms of whichever hospital indemnity plan it is that you would enroll in, you will have a daily cash benefit for inpatient stays at a hospital. And I may have already said this, but the sample cost for a 45 year old man was $30.43 per month.

And the beauty of a lot of these products specifically is you can pair them very well with a high deductible HSA individual family plan for financial backup. And so there's really that that's one of the big benefits of these types of plans is how well they pair with other major medical products.

So additional optional add on coverage, income protection for independent physicians, short and long term disability. This will replace income if you're unable to work, especially important for 1099 without employer provided options. We also have life insurance, term and whole life options, optional riders that we can have in addition to these products are accelerated death benefits and waiver of premium.

Example costs for the short term products are $70 per month as a premium for a short term product. Obviously we represent a variety of different carriers so we can help you shop the market a little bit. And then for long term, it would be $132 a month. And once again, these are example costs we can shop it. There's a variety of different carriers that you'll have options to pick from.

Personalized coverage bundles

Okay, so as we transition now to some of those more personalized coverage bundles. We're going to go through a couple of these options that we have been pretty conscientious of in curating for locum tenens, physicians, folks that are 1099 contractors. So tailored benefit packages. So we have the essential care bundle, which is an ACA individual medical plan paired with a dental and vision product, plus income protection.

This is a comprehensive baseline coverage for full time providers. It's going to really give you it's going to check all the necessary boxes. The next bundle is the everyday coverage bundle. So this is pairing the accident plus a hospital plan to kind of give you the coverage on the medical side and then you also have the vision and income protection solution on the back end. This is great for part time or hourly workers needing safety nets.

The short term safety net. So this is the STM is abbreviation for short term medical paired with the hospital indemnity and critical illness and then adding telehealth on the back end. So this is ideal for coverage gaps or in between jobs. This is a, you know, the telehealth is a great piece, telehealth subscription that pairs very very well, compliments the short term medical and hospital indemnity critical illness.

And these are packages that we can, you know, break these down even if there's certain pieces that don't make sense for you. We can do three of the five, three, four, whatever that may be. But these are some of the packages that we've seen great success in when, like I said, initially, these were really built with folks like you in mind. And so we've seen good success with these types of products and packages, I guess, the products within the packages. The bridge coverage plan is short term medical plus a gap plan. This is a lean lower cost solution for temporary needs.

And then the health share plus support bundle. So health share, a health share program. Obviously, the folks that can really connect the dots on what that means, our advisors are educated on that. But health share, in addition to supplemental plus developmental plan, paired with the telemed or direct primary care for prescription, not prescription I'm sorry, subscription.

So that's really for those looking for affordability with some support access. And then we have the virtual first protection. That's a DPC, direct primary care virtual clinic, plus RX access for pharmaceutical access, plus mental health and cast mental health subscription and then the catastrophic plan on the back end to kind of give you the basic coverage.

These are designed for remote workers prioritizing access and simplicity. And then to close this all out, we have the comprehensive supplemental package. This is short term disability or income protection plus accident, hospital, life insurance, RX and health. This is the stack coverage, which really kind of gives you it covers all the bases for unpredictable health events.

So like I said, with these packages that we've curated, they're with you in mind. And so our folks are going to be they're equipped, ready, able to talk with you about the nuances of this and excited to get to work with you directly and start talking through these things.

Health insurance enrollment with the Leavitt Group

So how enrollment works with Leavitt Group, simple personal year round support. So contact a Leavitt Group licensed advisor or visit the portal. Discuss your assignment details, income and location. Review available plans and pricing. Get enrolled in medical and optional coverage. And this is all additive. Sorry, I should have done a little bit better job clarifying that. Use us for renewals, changes and future support. Our team is here to help you.

And then what makes Leavitt Group different? A human first guidance approach. We talk like real people, not insurance bots. We're licensed in all 50 states.

We're trusted by CHG and work with many locum tenens providers. We work with physicians and we've worked recently with a big anesthesiologist group that had a lot of 1099 K-1s. We work with 1099 providers and other industries.

Our advisors are trained to work with individuals, individual and private insurance, HRA based funding, Medicare transitions and completely free to use, free to use. There's no hidden fees within our services.

So let's get you covered today. Our nationwide coverage, dedicated advisors, personalized options, ongoing support. So a couple of the call to actions or way to get a hold of us is number one, you can call the 435-233-2406 number. You can visit our individual lines email address, which is there, the enroll365.org.

And then we also have an email that's support at enroll365.com. Just thank you again for your time. We appreciate it. We know your time is valuable. We're excited to work with you and look forward to hearing from you if there's questions. Like I said, please don't hesitate to reach out. We are here and excited for this opportunity. Thanks all.

This summary article was created with the assistance of AI technology.