Staffing Firm Can’t Pay Its Doctors

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NES Health says a temporary revenue shortfall is to blame

by
Kristina Fiore, Director of Enterprise & Investigative Reporting, MedPage Today
November 1, 2024

Last Updated
November 2, 2024

Staffing firm NES Health told emergency physicians that it doesn’t have enough money to pay them this month, sources told MedPage Today.

The company sent an email from CEO Jose Aguirre, MD, to emergency physicians explaining that due to “necessary operational transitions,” the company experienced a “temporary shortfall in monthly revenue.”

It intended to bridge the shortfall with a loan, but that loan “did not come through in time for payroll.”

Instead, NES Health said it would make weekly partial payroll payments “until regularly scheduled payrolls can resume,” and it promised that “everyone will be paid and be made whole.”

Emergency physicians interviewed by MedPage Today — who asked to remain anonymous — said they were concerned about the potential for deeper financial instability at the company.

“I’m worried that one day they will say, ‘Sorry, it’s over, best of luck,'” said one emergency physician, who noted that it seemed like the company may have been rejected from receiving the loan.

The doctor was also concerned that the company didn’t specify how long it would take to pay the money owed.

“How much do I lose?” the physician asked, noting that should they walk away right now, they would be out only 2 months’ salary. Doctors are paid at the end of the month for the previous month’s work — so the October pay date would compensate doctors for hours worked in September, the physician explained. “Next month I could be even further in the hole.”

Robert McNamara, MD, chair of emergency medicine at Temple University in Philadelphia, said doctors are rightly concerned because it “seems like a replay of APP,” or American Physician Partners, which filed for bankruptcy in 2023 — not long after another physician staffing firm, Envision, had done the same.

The American College of Emergency Physicians (ACEP) posted a statement to Instagram noting that it is “aware of potential concerns regarding NES Health” and was “working to find out more details about how emergency physicians and their patients might be impacted.”

An ACEP spokesperson told MedPage Today that the organization is “working to learn more about the situation and offering guidance to impacted emergency physicians.”

At least two Reddit threads discussed the inability of the company to pay its physicians.

NES Health staffs 35 emergency departments across the country, according to data from Ivy Clinicians. For comparison, the largest emergency medicine staffing companies, TeamHealth and U.S. Acute Care Solutions, staff 562 and 301 emergency departments in the nation, respectively.

While the exact ownership of NES Health is unclear, physicians have raised concerns about the impact of private equity firms becoming involved in ownership of physician staffing companies.

NES Health did not return a request for comment to MedPage Today as of press time.