Building a Workforce You Control

How EOR and AOR Models Expand Health System Flexibility

Overview

Employer-of-record (EOR) and agent-of-record (AOR) models are becoming strategic workforce tools for health systems. They let a system engage, recruit and control talent across clinical and nonclinical roles without adding staff to payroll or using an agency. Used well, these models expand flexibility, speed access to talent and lower labor cost.

An EOR becomes the W-2 employer for workers sourced directly by a health system. It handles payroll, taxes, benefits, workers’ compensation and wage-and-hour compliance while the system directs the work. An AOR manages contracting, payment and classification compliance for independently contracted professionals, such as locum physicians, nurse practitioners and physician assistants.

The value of each model depends on how it’s managed. EOR and AOR work best inside an MSP/VMS that handles onboarding, credentialing, compliance, timekeeping, invoicing and remittance, and reporting, and also runs EOR and agency supply side by side in one program. Without that layer, the administrative burden and compliance risk fall back on the health system.

In this webinar with Healthcare Workforce Logistics (HWL), a HASC endorsed partner, you’ll learn how each model works and their best, highest-value use cases, starting with converting current agency travelers for immediate savings. You’ll also study the managed service provider (MSP) or vendor management system (VMS) infrastructure needed, compliance considerations for California, and a real-world association program example, and get your questions answered.

Why This Topic, Why Now

Workforce strategy is a board-level issue for California health systems, and several state-specific pressures shape it:

• Mandated nurse-to-patient ratios create fixed demand that cannot change when census or budgets tighten.
• Cost-growth limits from the Office of Health Care Affordability put spending under ongoing review.
• Rising wage floors, including the healthcare worker minimum wage law (SB 525), raise the baseline cost of all labor.
• Strict worker classification and wage-and-hour rules (AB 5, daily overtime, meal and rest breaks, PAGA exposure) make hospitals wary of engaging clinicians directly without a compliant employer or contracting partner.

EOR and AOR models, managed through an MSP/VMS, give members more ways to access and retain talent on their own terms. The models shift employment and classification compliance to a qualified partner, while the system still controls who works where and at what rate.

What You’ll Learn

By the end of this webinar, you’ll be able to:

1. Explain the difference between an EOR, an AOR, a staffing agency and a direct hire, and when each is the right tool.
2. Identify talent pools already within reach that an EOR or AOR can convert from agency spend: current agency travelers, out-of-state clinical/nonclinical staff, former employees and retirees, past travelers and locums, direct applicants and “silver medalist” candidates.
3. Understand how AOR supports independently contracted physicians and APPs, and the classification questions California systems must answer first.
4. Describe how publishing a transparent, market-based EOR pay package, backed by pay rate benchmarking data, sets a price reference that agencies must meet.
5. Understand why agencies remain an essential part of supply, and how EOR and agency channels work side by side under one managed program.
6. Evaluate the key compliance responsibilities (payroll, benefits, workers’ compensation, stipends, credentialing, California wage-and-hour rules) and which ones shift to the partner.
7. Apply a simple checklist to decide whether an EOR or AOR program fits your organization.
8. Design a system-controlled contingent labor pool, local or shared across affiliated facilities, that sits off the hospital’s payroll and outside agency markups.
9. Explain why an EOR or AOR program needs an MSP/VMS to manage administration, compliance, time keeping, remittance and reporting, and what that platform must include.

You’ll also receive valuable takeaways:

• A plain-language guide to EOR and AOR models
• A readiness checklist for evaluating whether an EOR or AOR program is right for your organization
• A contingent labor spend and rate benchmark

Who Should Attend

If you’re a hospital or health system leader in the following areas who owns, funds or manages contingent staff, you’ll benefit from this webinar:

• CNOs and nursing leadership
• Human resources and talent acquisition
• Finance
• CMOs and physician services
• Supply chain and contracting
• Compliance and legal counsel

Presenters

• Jeff Niles, executive vice president, HWL
• Neil Faux, independent HR consultant and vice president of people services, St. Peter’s Health (Helena, Montana)

Questions?

To learn more about HWL, please visit the HWL-HASC partnership page. For any questions about the webinar, contact Sherita Aquino, HASC, [email protected] or (213) 538-0767.