Tag: local travel therapy

How Far From Home Do You Need to be for a Travel Therapy Contract?

~ Travel Therapy Mentor ~ Leave a comment

With travel therapy becoming more popular for many physical therapists (PT), occupational therapists (OT), and speech language pathologists (SLP), prospective travel therapists often wonder how far away from home does a job need to be in order to be considered a travel therapy contract.

Often the people asking this question have a reason for not wanting to leave their home area, such as family ties or being locked into a mortgage or lease, but they still want the benefits that come along with travel therapy like higher pay and flexibility to take time off between contracts. They assume that living at home but taking travel therapy contracts within driving distance will give them the best of both worlds, but unfortunately it’s a little more complicated than that.

We hear from PTs, OTs, and SLPs who are in this situation all the time. Many of them want to take travel therapy jobs close to home, but don’t know how the process works or if that’s possible. If you’re in this boat as well, we’re here to help.

First let’s define some terms in regards to travel therapy to try to make things more understandable.

Travel Therapy Terminology

Tax free stipends: The tax free stipends are a big part of what makes travel therapy pay packages so lucrative. Travel therapists are eligible for tax free stipends for housing, meals, and incidentals when they travel away from home for work and meet certain rules for maintaining a tax home.

Tax Home: A travel therapist’s tax home is their place of permanent residence where they have expenses, business ties, and return to on a regular basis. If a traveler doesn’t have a tax home and does not maintain all the tax home rules, then they’re considered an itinerant worker and are ineligible for tax free stipends.

Itinerant worker: An itinerant worker is a travel therapist who chooses to take travel contracts without maintaining a tax home. They’re truly nomadic, moving from one temporary contract to the next, without any permanent residence where they return and at which they have expenses and business/family ties.

Local Travel: A local travel contract is a travel contract that a therapist takes close to their permanent residence. For a local travel contract, the therapist would be commuting to the job from their home. In this case, they would not be eligible for tax free stipends. This is because although they do have a tax home, they are not duplicating their housing expenses since they’re commuting, which is one of the IRS tax home rules required to be eligible for the tax free stipends.

How Far Do You Need to be Away from Home for a Travel Therapy Contract?

If you’re taking a travel therapy job as a local travel contract without tax free stipends, then there is no distance requirement at all. In this case, your pay package would just be structured differently than a typical travel therapy contract where you are traveling to a new location. Your pay package would be all taxed, more like an hourly rate at a permanent or PRN job. Although you won’t get the tax free stipends, the pay should still but quite a bit higher than a permanent job, and you don’t have to worry about finding housing or packing/moving like a traditional travel therapist. For some people, this is exactly what they want. Just keep in mind, there’s no guarantee that there will be an open travel therapy job in your home area in order for you to be able to make local travel therapy an option. Some areas are more well suited for local travel therapy than others, so it will depend on the availability of travel therapy job options in your region. If you’re curious about travel therapy job options in your region, it’s best to get connected with a travel therapy recruiter who can tell you what job options they have available and/or typically see for your area.

If you’d like to take a travel therapy contract as a traditional travel therapist in order to receive the tax free stipends and earn more money, but would like for it to be somewhat close to your home/region, then the distance that the job needs to be away from your home is whatever would be considered “beyond a reasonable commutable distance” from your home. This can vary significantly depending on where you live and if it’s urban or rural. That is why there is no exact guideline set by the IRS for exactly how far away from your home it needs to be. Some travel therapy staffing companies will use the “50 Mile Rule” as a rule of thumb to determine if the job is far enough from your home to be considered a true travel therapy job. But, again, this is just a rule of thumb and not an actual IRS rule. You will need to take into consideration what typical workers in your area would consider a normal commute for a permanent job. Then look outside of that radius. In addition to taking into account how far the job is away, if you would like to take the job as a traveler who is receiving tax free stipends, you must also meet all of the tax home rules. The biggest one to consider in this case is duplicating expenses. This means finding a place to stay and paying expenses at the location of job for the duration of the travel therapy assignment, while still maintaining your expenses at your place back home. Again, you cannot commute from your house to a job, no matter how far away it is, and be eligible per the IRS rules to receive tax free stipends.

Close to Home Travel Therapy Contract Example

A good example of this is the very first travel therapy contract that I took back in 2015 when Whitney and I started traveling as new grad physical therapists. We wanted to be fairly close to home for our first jobs to make sure that travel therapy was a good fit for us before we ventured too far away. I ended up accepting a job at a hospital that had an open Travel PT position about 70 miles from home. I kept the room I was renting back at home as my tax home, and we found a place to live closer to the new job where we also paid rent. Since the contract was outside of a commutable distance for our area, and I was duplicating housing expenses, as well as following the other tax home guidelines, I was eligible for tax free stipends and took the job as a traditional travel contract.

On the other hand, had the job been a little closer, and I commuted back and forth home each day, then I would have had to take the contract as a local traveler with a fully taxed pay package. I would have made about $300-$400 less each week in that case due to having to pay taxes on my full pay package, but I wouldn’t have had to pay for a place to stay closer to work. So as you can see, there are pros and cons in this situation.

Which Type of Travel Therapy is Best for You?

The great thing about travel therapy is that there are so many different options and ways to do things.

Maybe traveling away from home isn’t feasible for you due to family obligations, but there are travel therapy contracts open near you and you choose to take contracts as a local traveler. That’s wonderful!

Maybe you start traveling right after graduation and don’t have roots put down anywhere yet, so you decide to travel as a truly nomadic itinerant worker without maintaining a tax home. Or similarly, you decide to sell your home to cut down on expenses, and become truly nomadic. That’s great!

Or maybe, like us, you want to travel but aren’t yet sure how the lifestyle will fit you, so you decide to take a travel contract somewhat close to home, but still outside of a commutable distance to get your feet wet first, while meeting all the tax home rules and duplicating expenses. Smart move!

And of course there’s the traditional travel therapy route, where you maintain your tax home and meet all the tax home rules, while traveling all over the country taking travel therapy jobs in various places far away from home. The options are endless!

However you decide to travel, there’s almost certainly a way to make it work if you’re determined, do your research, and come up with a plan that works well for you.

If you need help getting started with travel therapy, our free Travel Therapy 101 series has helped thousands of new healthcare travelers learn the essentials to dive into travel therapy. If you need help getting in touch with some great travel companies and recruiters that will be a good fit for your situation, then fill out our recruiter recommendation form to get connected. Or if you want to just peruse some of the current travel therapy jobs available, then our hot jobs list is the place to go. Best of luck in your journey, and feel free to message us with any questions!

Written by Jared Casazza, PT, DPT – Jared has been a traveling physical therapist since 2015. He has become an expert in the field of travel healthcare through his experience, research, and networking over nearly a decade.

Can You Find a Travel Therapy Job Anywhere in the Country?

~ Travel Therapy Mentor ~ 1 Comment

A common question we get from aspiring travel therapists involves how to find a travel therapy job in a specific state or even in a specific city. Usually the question is coming from a therapist who has limited knowledge on how travel therapy works, but they found our website, our Instagram account, or saw our hot jobs list during a search for travel therapy information and are reaching out to us for help.

Often these therapists are in one of these situations:

  • already planning to move to a specific city long term and wants to try a travel contract there before committing to a permanent position
  • or has heard good things about a city and wants to check it out short term before committing to moving there
  • or they only want to take travel jobs in specific cities where they have family or friends
  • or they just have their heart set on certain cities to explore with travel contracts (like San Diego or Austin)
  • or they’re a therapist looking to take “local travel therapy contracts” in the area where they already live

These individuals are usually looking to take advantage of some of the perks of travel therapy jobs, such as higher pay, trying out different settings without committing to a permanent job, and flexible time off between contracts, but while being able to choose the exact city/state where they want to work. Sometimes they’ve heard from a recruiter or another travel therapist that they can work where ever they want as a traveler, but they don’t understand how the process works.

So, Can You Take a Travel Job Anywhere You Want in the US? Well, It Depends.

Unfortunately, although it is theoretically possible to work anywhere in the country if a travel job is available, often there isn’t going to be a travel job opening in a specific city at the time you need it. This is especially the case if there’s a certain setting you want as well. Of course, this will always depend on the city in question, because some cities consistently have significantly more travel therapy jobs than others. For example, say you’re a PT who wants to find a pediatric outpatient travel job in Salt Lake City, Utah. Although it would theoretically be possible for a job like that to pop up, the odds are very low, and it could take years to see a contract like that. In fact, in 6+ years of traveling, we’ve only seen a handful of PT travel jobs in any setting in all of Utah. The odds of finding a travel contract in Utah in general are already low, but adding in a specific city and setting make finding something to fit that criteria almost impossible. On the other hand, say you’re a PT who wants to find a travel contract near San Francisco, California and you’re open to outpatient or home health. In that case, it’s going to be a lot more likely to find what you’re looking for and you’ll probably see a lot of job options.

But Why?

Some therapy students and new therapists think that just because it’s possible to work anywhere in the country as a travel therapist, that this means they can find a job anywhere they want at any time. They may have the impression that travel therapy companies are essentially creating a new job for them when they want to go to an area, but that’s not how travel therapy works. In order for a travel job to exist, there has to be a facility with a need that is specifically looking for a short term employee at that time. Usually that need will be due to something like a sudden increase in caseload, a permanent therapist at the facility recently quitting, a permanent therapist out on medical leave, or difficulty with finding a permanent therapist to fill an open position. No matter what the reason, a travel therapy recruiter can’t create a job in an area where a need doesn’t currently exist. So, depending what area you’re searching and the open job availability at that time, travel therapy just in one area may or may not work out.

In addition, for popular places such as San Diego, CA or Austin, TX, you’ll have to take into account competition for jobs in the area. Not only are these areas competitive for permanent positions because they’re highly desirable places to live (which means you won’t see travel therapist needs there as often), but when there are travel jobs there, these positions are highly competitive and often get taken really quickly because many travelers want to go there.

So, What If I Only Want One Location, Is Travel Not an Option For Me?

Not necessarily. It’s just going to depend on the city and/or state of interest, and how flexible you are on different settings. If you’re someone who is only interested in traveling to one area, or you’re interested in pursuing travel jobs within a commutable distance from where you currently live, it is possible that you may have some options. It’s never a bad idea to get connected with a few travel therapy recruiters to discuss your job search and see what job availability they may have for you.

But, don’t be too surprised if they tell you that they don’t have any job options in the exact location where you’re looking, or in your preferred setting. You may have to be open to a bigger search radius, different settings, or both in order to make travel therapy jobs a reality. Depending on the area, this could mean that you need to be open to within an hour or two of the exact city, or for some areas it could mean you need to be open to the entire state or even nearby states. Every state and city is going to have varying job availability for travel positions, and this job availability literally can change by the month, week, day, or hour, depending on fluctuations in staffing needs.

In some cases, travel therapy companies can try to “cold call” facilities in the area you’re looking, in order to see if a facility would be interested in having a travel therapist there short term, even if they don’t currently have a listing. But this is not always fruitful and is time consuming for recruiters, so if they’re already busy with a lot of other travelers, it may not be something they’re willing or able to do.

The bottom line is, if you’re only open to a small area and are only looking for certain settings, your options are going to be limited. It’s possible you can line up one travel therapy contract to suit your needs, but it may be less likely that you’ll obtain consistent employment as a travel therapist just in one region. There are certain therapists who are able to get their exact desired location and setting for a travel job, and there are certainly therapists who live at home and find consistent contracts within a commutable distance. But this is not always the case and certainly not how most travel therapists do it. As always, “it depends.”

How Would “Local Travel Therapy Contracts” Work if I Can Find Them?

Let’s say that for the particular city or region you’re interested in, there are some travel job options. You can accept a “travel therapy” job anywhere in the country. But, you’ll need to take into account the IRS Tax Home Rules in order to determine how you would get paid as a therapist working that job.

If you’re unfamiliar with travel therapy pay, we suggest checking out our Comprehensive Guide to Travel Therapy Pay to better understand how typical travel therapy contracts and pay packages work. Part of the reason that typical travel therapists make a lot more money, is due to tax-free stipends as part of their pay packages. But, in order to qualify for these tax-free stipends, you need to meet certain Tax Home rules. The best resource to learn more about Tax Homes is TravelTax.com.

For example, if you are maintaining a permanent residence in another state, duplicating expenses, and meeting all the tax home rules, but you want to go try out a travel therapy job in a new city/state to see if you want to move there or just check it out for a few months, you can likely accept the pay package like a normal travel therapist with tax-free stipends.

However, if you move your permanent residence to a new area and are just taking a travel contract or two to decide on a job you like in the new area, before accepting a permanent job, you’re likely not meeting the tax home rules and would have all of your pay taxed for your contract.

Similarly, if you plan to live at home at your permanent residence and commute to “travel” contracts within your area, you are not meeting the tax home rules because you are not duplicating expenses, and therefore your pay package will be fully taxed, rather than receiving tax-free stipends like a traditional travel therapist. (Yes this is the case even if the job is more than 50 miles from your home. This “50 mile rule” you sometimes hear about is actually a “50 mile myth.” Being 50+ miles away does NOT qualify you for tax free stipends per IRS rules. If you are living at home and commuting to the job, regardless of how many miles away the job is, you aren’t meeting the requirements to receive tax free stipends.) Doing this, you’ll likely still earn significantly more than a permanent therapist, but not as much as a traditional travel therapist who is receiving tax free stipends. Your pay as a “local traveler” would likely be more like a PRN rate.

Take Home Message

Typically, to be a travel therapist, you need to be somewhat flexible on locations in order to find consistent travel contracts. We usually recommend that therapists open up their search criteria to at minimum an entire state, or a few states. Then, from there, you can see what travel job options are available, and start narrowing down your job search based on the settings, pay packages, etc.

However we understand that some therapists may have limitations on the geographic locations they are willing or able to travel to, but they’re still interested in pursuing short-term contracts to take advantage of the higher pay, flexibility to take time off, and flexibility to try out different settings. If this is the situation you’re in, we recommend getting in touch with a few travel therapy recruiters to find out what options they may have available, or seeing if they can “cold call” facilities for you to try to arrange a travel contract. Alternatively, you could consider being an independent contractor and calling around to arrange your own short-term contracts in an area, although this is a lot more hassle and may or may not be worth it depending on your situation. Last, you can consider applying directly to regular therapy jobs in the area that are listed as permanent or PRN positions, then if you are given the opportunity to interview, you could ask about taking the job as a short term contract rather than long term if that would suit your needs better.

Keep in mind that if you do take “local travel contracts” just in one region, you need to consider the tax home laws and implications before accepting any pay package which includes tax-free stipends.

We hope that this helps better explain different options that you have if you’re considering taking travel therapy contracts just in one specific area. Please send us a message if you have more questions, or fill out this form if you’d like to get connected with travel therapy recruiters and companies that we trust.

Written by Whitney Eakin, PT, DPT, ATC
& Jared Casazza, PT, DPT

Whitney and Jared have been traveling physical therapists since 2015. Together they have mentored and educated thousands of current and aspiring travel therapists.