The Beyond Locums Series

A curriculum of operational literacy texts for clinicians building independent careers — each volume addressing a distinct part of the path.

Ebook editions are available now. Companion professional education is in development; accreditation is pending and no credit is currently awarded.

Out of the Shadows — book cover
Available Now

Start Here

Out of the Shadows

An Honest Account of the Locum Tenens Pathway in American Medicine

A serious account of one of the most important and least professionally supported clinical disciplines in American medicine. For 45 years, the locum tenens pathway has served 75 million Americans in Health Professional Shortage Areas and become essential workforce infrastructure — without the educational, credentialing, or standards infrastructure every other clinical pathway takes for granted.

This book makes the case for what a professionalized pathway would look like, and why the work of building it is overdue. Not a how-to guide. The honest account that should have existed for 45 years.

Also included in the Complete Library ($359)

Volume I

Independent Practice · Locum Tenens · Career Control

The Locums
Heart Surgeon

How a Cardiothoracic Surgeon Built an Independent Practice — and How Any Clinician Can Do the Same

William A. Cooper, MD, MBA

Volume I · The Beyond Locums Series

The Locums Heart Surgeon

How a Cardiothoracic Surgeon Built an Independent Practice — and How Any Clinician Can Do the Same

The founding volume of the Beyond Locums Series. A practical playbook for physicians and other clinicians who want to build a serious independent career in locum tenens and direct contracting — with the operational specificity that translates from one surgeon's specific case to a general framework any clinician can follow.

Drawing on three decades in high-acuity cardiac surgery and years of independent practice, Dr. Cooper combines real-world rate benchmarks, ready-to-use negotiation language, and detailed checklists into a single, cohesive framework. Whether you are early in your career, mid-career and burned out, or returning to practice on your own terms, this book gives you the tools to increase your income, expand your flexibility, and regain control of your professional life.

18 Chapters · Complete Table of Contents

  • 01 The History of Locum Tenens in the US
  • 02 A Different Way to Practice Medicine
  • 03 The Physician Workforce Crisis
  • 04 How the Locum Tenens Marketplace Works
  • 05 The Hidden Economics of Locum Tenens
  • 06 The Independent Physician Framework
  • 07 Setting Up a Business Entity
  • 08 Direct Contracting
  • 09 Know Your Worth: Rate Setting
  • 10 Working with a Staffing Agency
  • 11 Presentation Rights in Locum Staffing
  • 12 Marketing Yourself as a Locum Physician
  • 13 Creating a Locums Brief
  • 14 Malpractice Coverage for Locum Tenens
  • 15 Credentialing and Licensing
  • 16 Tax and Accounting
  • 17 Preparing for Assignments: Travel & Logistics
  • 18 Templates and Resources
Companion professional education in development — accreditation pending

Companion education in development · Request updates

Includes ready-to-use templates:

8 sample contract clauses (malpractice, cancellation, rate structure, tail coverage, non-compete, IP, credentialing, and indemnification) · Complete go-bag and assignment onboarding checklist · Locums Brief template

Get the Ebook — $79 Request Program Updates

Or get the full Series for $229

Volume II

Beyond Locums Series

FMV

The FMV
Triangle

A Physician's Guide to Fair Market Value, Compliance, and Compensation in Modern Healthcare

William A. Cooper, MD, MBA

Volume II · The Beyond Locums Series

The FMV Triangle

A Physician's Guide to Fair Market Value, Compliance, and Compensation in Modern Healthcare

Few topics cause more confusion, frustration, and quiet anxiety among physicians than fair market value. The phrase appears in every employment agreement, every locum tenens contract, every medical directorship stipend, every call coverage arrangement, and every payer audit notification. It is treated as if it had a single, fixed answer. It does not.

The FMV Triangle teaches FMV as it is — so you can operate competently within current rules, negotiate from knowledge rather than fear, and protect yourself in any review that might come. Organized around the three interlocking regulatory tests every compensation arrangement must pass: Fair Market Value, Commercial Reasonableness, and Volume/Value Independence — the three vertices of the Triangle. Miss any one, and the arrangement is at risk regardless of how comfortable the other two feel.

Written by a practicing surgeon, for practicing clinicians, in plain language — with case vignettes drawn from situations physicians actually encounter. This is the book Dr. Cooper wishes someone had handed him before that first compliance briefing.

15 Chapters · Complete Table of Contents

  • I Why FMV Exists: The Regulatory Foundation
  • II The Anatomy of FMV: How Valuation Works
  • III Where the Old FMV Framework Breaks
  • IV FMV for Employed Physicians
  • V FMV for Locum Tenens
  • VI FMV by Specialty
  • VII Medical Directorships: The Most Common Trap
  • VIII Call Coverage, Telemedicine & Hybrid
  • IX Red Flags: How Compliance Officers Spot Problems
  • X Common FMV Myths That Cost Physicians Money
  • XI The Stark/AKS Bridge
  • XII Designing FMV-Compliant Compensation Models
  • XIII Documentation: What Auditors Look For
  • XIV The Future of FMV: Value-Based Care
  • XV Career Strategy: Using FMV Knowledge to Negotiate
Companion professional education in development — accreditation pending

Companion education in development · Request updates

Includes real case vignettes:

Dollar figures, contractual structures, and underlying questions are drawn from real physician situations — names changed, scenarios intact. Covers employed salaries, locum rates, medical directorships, call stipends, telemedicine, and academic compensation.

Get the Ebook — $79 Request Program Updates

Or get the full Series for $229

Volume III

Professional Literacy Course

How Locum Tenens & Healthcare Staffing Really Work

A Professional Literacy Course for Clinicians

William A. Cooper, MD, MBA

Volume III · The Beyond Locums Series

How Locum Tenens & Healthcare Staffing Really Work

A Professional Literacy Course for Clinicians

Medical training in the United States does not address how the healthcare staffing industry actually operates. Specialty boards don't test on it. Hospital orientation materials don't explain it. The agencies that recruit clinicians have no incentive to describe it precisely — their marketing optimizes for engagement attraction rather than systemic accuracy.

This book is the operational map. It walks the staffing industry as it actually operates: the structural problems the industry exists to solve, the layers of the pipeline that have been built to solve them at scale, the financial flows the system generates, the rate structures that produce the prices clinicians encounter, and the strategic considerations that should inform how clinicians use the model over the arc of a professional career.

Companion professional education in development — accreditation pending

Companion education in development · Request updates

12 Chapters · Complete Table of Contents

  • I The Coverage Problem in Modern Healthcare
  • II What Locum Tenens Is — and Is Not
  • III The Staffing Agency's Role
  • IV How Money Moves
  • V MSPs and VMS Explained
  • VI The MSP–VMS–Agency Pipeline
  • VII The Clinician Experience Inside These Systems
  • VIII Rate Cards, Access, and Budget Constraints
  • IX Where Fair Market Value Fits
  • X Design Limits of the Staffing Model
  • XI Career Strategy and Intentional Use
  • XII Beyond Locums

Planned Learning Outcomes:

Upon completion, learners can describe structural causes of physician coverage gaps, explain the four defining characteristics of locum tenens practice, identify the operational roles of staffing agencies/MSPs/VMS platforms, analyze bill rate economics, apply FMV and regulatory compliance frameworks (Stark, AKS, False Claims Act), and develop strategic career approaches to locum use across career stages.

Get the Ebook — $59 Request Program Updates

Or get the full Series for $229

Volume IV

Working Handbook

Preparing for
Locums and
Independent Practice

A Working Handbook for the Independent Clinician

William A. Cooper, MD, MBA

Volume IV · The Beyond Locums Series

Preparing for Locums and Independent Practice

A Working Handbook for the Independent Clinician

Where Volume III explains how the system works, Volume IV is the hands-on preparation guide for actually entering it. Nine focused chapters covering the practical mechanics of locum readiness — from building your Locums Brief to decoding your first contract, structuring your accounting, navigating multi-state licensing, and using the full LTA self-help toolkit.

Companion professional education in development — accreditation pending

Companion education in development · Request updates

9 Chapters · Complete Table of Contents

  • 01 The Locums Brief vs. the CV
  • 02 Understanding Locums
  • 03 Marketing Yourself
  • 04 Decoding Contracts
  • 05 Accounting and Tax Strategy
  • 06 Multistate Licensing and the IMLCC
  • 07 Understanding Credentialing and Privileging
  • 08 Managing Multiple Licenses and Hospital Affiliations
  • 09 Self-Help Tools Offered by LTA

What makes this volume different:

The Locums Brief chapter alone addresses why your traditional 10-page CV is the wrong document for locum market outreach — and gives you the framework for the 1–2 page brief optimized for the 30-second scan that moves you forward. Chapter 9 maps every LTA self-help tool so you know what to reach for at each decision point.

Get the Ebook — $59 Request Program Updates

Or get the full Series for $229

Advanced Practice

The Advanced Practice Library

The independent-practice operational library for advanced practice clinicians: nurse practitioners, nurse anesthetists, and physician assistants. Companion education is in development; accreditation is pending.

Nurse Practitioner

The Locum Tenens Nurse Practitioner

Companion professional education in development · accreditation pending

$59

Get the Ebook — $59

Nurse Anesthetist

The Locum Tenens Nurse Anesthetist

Companion professional education in development · accreditation pending

$59

Get the Ebook — $59

Physician Assistant

Physician Assistant Career Mastery

Companion professional education in development · accreditation pending

$49

Get the Ebook — $49

Advanced Practice Bundle

The Advanced Practice Library

All three APP volumes — NP, CRNA, and PA. Individual value: $167.

$139

Save 17%

Get the Library — $139

Recruiter Edition

Beyond Placement™
The Recruiter Edition

How Physician-Aligned Recruiters Work

The locum tenens market is built on the relationship between physicians and recruiters — and that relationship works best when both sides understand the operational, regulatory, and contractual structure underneath it. Beyond Placement™ is the recruiter's edition of the LTA curriculum.

  • ✓ Fair market value and what it means for the bill rate conversation
  • ✓ Contract terms recruiters need to understand before sending one
  • ✓ Malpractice structures and the questions to ask before placement
  • ✓ The Locums Brief™ from the recruiter's side
  • ✓ The economics of bill rate, pay rate, and spread — representing the physician honestly

Beyond Placement™ buyers receive priority consideration for the CPAR™ (Certified Physician-Aligned Recruiter) beta cohort launching fall 2026.

Recruiter Edition

Beyond Placement™

How Physician-Aligned Recruiters Work

$49

Ebook · PDF

Get the Book — $49

The Complete Curriculum

"The cost of professional guidance is a fraction of the cost of acting without it."

The Beyond Locums Series is an operational guide to the full arc of an independent clinician career. Ebooks are available now; companion professional education remains in development.

The Beyond Locums Series (Vols I–IV) $229 The Advanced Practice Library (NP + CRNA + PA) $139 The LTA Complete Library (all 9 books) $359
Get the Complete Library — $359 Join the Founding Members List