Congress quietly strips labor protections from temporary healthcare workers
H.R. 7686 — Rural and Underserved Health Care Staffing Act · Filed by Buddy Carter (R-GA) · 1 cosponsor · Introduced Feb 25, 2026 · Referred to committee
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What it does
This bill reclassifies temporary doctors and advanced practitioners (locum tenens) as independent contractors rather than employees for purposes of federal labor and employment law, exempting them from protections like minimum wage, overtime, family leave, and union organizing rights. The reclassification applies across Fair Labor Standards Act, National Labor Relations Act, Title VII civil rights protections, ADA, FMLA, ERISA, and HHS programs—unless a facility explicitly contracts them as employees.
Why we flagged it
The bill's core mechanism is to strip federal employment protections from a specific class of healthcare workers by redefining them as independent contractors. While framed as addressing rural healthcare staffing, the functional effect is labor-cost reduction for healthcare employers and staffing agencies.
What the text implies
- Locum tenens workers lose access to unemployment insurance, workers' compensation coordination, and FMLA protections—shifting risk entirely to individual workers during illness, injury, or family emergencies.
- The bill exempts locum tenens from NLRA coverage, preventing unionization or collective bargaining even if workers are de facto permanent at a single site for up to 12 months.
The full analysis lists 5 implications of this text.
Who stands to gain
healthcare staffing agencies; hospital systems and health networks; dialysis centers (DVA operates DaVita HealthCare Partners)