By Tony Braswell

Nurses are heroes, and their lifesaving work is more than worthy of the recognition it gets this time of year during National Nurses Week. However, if we really want to celebrate our nurses, we ought to ensure they receive the benefits and protections they deserve by properly classifying them as W-2 employees.

The rise of digital healthcare staffing platforms that connect nurses to open shifts has left some to be wrongly classified as 1099 independent contractors.  Some platform companies claim they are only “matching” nurses to open shifts; they don’t “employ” them. This means they don’t receive the benefits they deserve, from overtime pay to workers comp coverage to employer-deducted taxes and healthcare options. To do right by nurses and properly comply with the law, these platforms ought to classify all nurses as W-2 employees.

Nurses have historically been classified as employees because of the highly regulated nature of the healthcare industry. While independent contractor classification makes sense for some gig-style jobs – like rideshare drivers or freelance writers – anyone who’s ever been around healthcare knows nurses do not have the type of freedom of those typical gig workers to work in any manner they want. Nurses don’t set their own start and end times or decide when they take a break. They don’t get to pick and choose which healthcare regulations they follow. They don’t bring their own equipment to the job. These and other factors make it clear nurses are working under the direction and control of the healthcare provider - one of the key criterion the Department of Labor provides to guide classification decisions.

At Gale Healthcare Solutions, a platform company that employs over 1,000 nurses in the Nashville area, we provide all nurses with full W-2 protections, treating them as employees just like a healthcare provider would if they were working full time. Misclassification of nurses by some platform companies doesn’t just shortchange hard-working nurses; it also poses a huge risk to healthcare facilities that are often desperate for staff in the midst of the national nursing shortage.

Under the Fair Labor Standards Act, healthcare providers that rely on 1099 workers can be considered a “joint employer” with the healthcare staffing platform, meaning they may face the consequences of misclassification. Last year, a Pennsylvania-based long term care provider was ordered to pay $15 million in back wages after it was discovered workers had been misclassified as independent contractors and denied overtime pay.

This issue of worker misclassification is coming to a head this month in Washington. A proposal from the Department of Labor expected in the coming weeks will impose stricter guidelines for worker classification and set the stage for a crackdown on companies that violate these guidelines. This rule is crucial for ensuring nurses and other healthcare workers get the full W-2 protections and benefits they deserve.

1099 companies can seem like an appealing option for healthcare providers looking to save money. But the financial consequences that come from being caught in a worker misclassification lawsuit are steep, and the new rules will only increase this risk. As a former DOL litigator recently commented, in the end, the only one saving money is the platform company that is shortchanging nursing staff.

The new federal rule is a step in the right direction to crack down on worker misclassification, but healthcare providers shouldn’t wait for the rule to take effect. By using W-2 staffing platforms, healthcare providers can shield themselves from the consequences of worker misclassification now and in the future.

Nurses and nursing support staff save lives every day. They work tirelessly to take care of our loved ones. The best way for providers to celebrate National Nurses Week and show their appreciation is by classifying nurses as W-2 employees and giving them the protections and benefits they deserve.

Tony Braswell is the president and founder of Gale Healthcare Solutions, a leading technology-based healthcare staffing company. With more than 60,000 nurses, Gale has one of the fastest growing networks of W-2 supplemental clinicians in the country and serves thousands of healthcare providers across 40 states.