do travel nurses get benefits?

This is a commonly asked question, and it makes sense. Travel nursing is an odd category of job where you’re basically a contracted employee for six months at a time. On top of this, the market is quite saturated with tons of travel nursing agencies who compete to hire you as a travel nurse. These agencies offer all different kinds and levels of benefits, but don’t worry, there should always be the option to have important benefits such as health care through your travel nurse agency.

what benefits can you get?

Currently, Dan and I both have health, dental, and eye coverage through his agency. We also have life insurance and Dan will eventually get 401k contributions from his agency once he’s worked there for long enough.

It’s tricky because the travel nursing world is competitive and ever-changing, so the pressure to switch agencies in search of the best one is real. So far, we’ve been happy with the switch that we recently made as Dan’s current agency had many more contracts to offer that were largely higher paying than what his previous agency had for us. That said, Dan’s previous agency had started making these contributions to Dan’s 401k so when we left we lost that and had to start back at square one with this new agency. There are a lot of benefits to loyalty, even in travel nursing.

choosing a travel nurse agency

I’ve talked before about how to choose an agency that is right for you, and this is another point I’d like to add. Take a look at what they offer in terms of health insurance and other benefits. It will depend on the agency, but could also depend on your geographic location. Agencies send travel nurses all around the country so they have many different plans that they can offer to best suit your current location. The current health insurance plan that Dan and I have is incredible; we’re really happy with it. That said, the plan offered by his previous agency was much more expensive (and had a higher deductible) so keep in mind what the plan details are that different agencies offer when choosing which is best for you.

It’s common, and we would argue important, to spend time comparing different agencies to make the most informed decision you can. That said, it’s perfectly normal to end up switching agencies down the road. It’s difficult, there’s a lot of work and at times benefits lost, but it can be the right decision. The choice of what agency you work for is entirely your own. If you feel like you’re not being properly supported, or if there seem to be better opportunities elsewhere, it may be time to throw another agency in the mix.

challenges to travel nursing benefits

As I’ve already pointed out, changing travel nursing agencies resets your benefits. You don’t lose any kind of contributions that have already been made, but you can’t hold on to the same insurance plans when switching agencies. This is really important to keep in mind for things like healthcare. In general, benefits like health insurance are much less stable going through a travel nurse agency because they’re reliant on your remaining continuously employed by that agency. This sounds like any job right? Well sort of, but with travel nursing contracts most commonly being 13 weeks long, this means that your coverage is in a state of limbo every 13 weeks.

time-off restrictions

Typically travel nursing benefits are contingent upon continuous employment with no more than 30 days or one month between contracts. In today’s world, it’s unlikely for a travel nurse to not be able to find a contract once they’re already in the field. Well, unless they’re being quite particular. However, there is always a chance that it could be difficult to find your next contract leading to a period of time longer than 30 days between contracts. Or, your contract may be cancelled at the last minute before you start leading to a period of time longer than 30 days between contracts. In both of these situations, a travel nurse could be at risk for losing their coverage.

This also has the potential to put the travel nurse into a bit of a state of pressure to accept whatever comes their way. It’s all a somewhat unlikely situation in today’s travel nursing world, but it’s something to consider. Dan and I have spent a lot of time looking into private health insurance options and also health sharing. So far, as I said above, we decided to sign on to his agency’s benefits program including health insurance, but with a bit of hesitation as we recognized the challenges.

geographic limitations

Another significant challenge to travel nursing insurance plans are the geographic limitations that could come along with them. The nature of travel nursing is that as a travel nurse you’ll be traveling to new places constantly, or at least every year. If a travel nurse wants to receive their housing stipend tax free, they legally cannot stay in the same place for over a year. In addition, they must have a qualifying tax home (that most often can’t be in the same state as where they’re working as a travel nurse) at which they must spend at least 30 days a year.

The tricky part is, if you have to go to new areas consistently as a travel nurse, how do you know you’ll have good health coverage in the new area? It’s important to ask your agency about how widespread their health insurance plan coverage is for exactly this reason. When we inquired about this with Dan’s current agency, they were helpful with explaining the areas where they’ve run into issues with in the past. They also ensured us that if we went to a new area and found we didn’t have enough coverage, they’d work with us on changing plans. Unfortunately, changing plans would mean a reset deductible, so not a great option.

This was particularly significant for us because we ended up deciding to go with an EPO health insurance plan. That just means that if we go to an out-of-network provider it’s entirely not covered by our insurance. So it was extra important to find out how extensive the coverage of the plan was before deciding to sign on.

conclusion

These are all important things to keep in mind when choosing an agency, and when deciding whether or not to enroll in your agencies benefits programs or not. There’s no right answer, it completely depends on your situation and your preferences, but I hope this helped to give you a bit more to think about on the topic of travel nursing benefits.