William A. Cooper, MD, MBA

The Beyond Locums Series

A curriculum of operational literacy texts for physicians building independent careers — each volume addressing one domain, each paired with CME-eligible companion courses, templates, and tools.

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

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 Book Paired CME Course

Volume II

Beyond Locums Series

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

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 Book Paired CME Course

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.

12 AMA PRA Category 1 Credits™ — Companion CME Course Available

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

CME Course 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 Book 12-Credit CME Course

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.

9 AMA PRA Category 1 Credits™ — Companion CME Course Available

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 Book 9-Credit CME Course

The Complete Curriculum

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

The Beyond Locums Series is an integrated learning environment — each volume paired with CME-eligible companion courses, downloadable templates, and interactive tools. Each book can be read independently; read together, they are the operational guide to the full arc of an independent physician career.

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