If you are looking for inpatient rehab or outpatient, here are some decent websites I like. I’ve found careers starting on here. Most are employed however:
AAPMR job board
Practicelink
If you want recruiters: Doc cafe, Locums, comphealth, etc. In my experience, most recruiters are not very reliable and you are better off finding the job yourself. But sometimes they are the only ones that know about a position. There is some new smartlocumstenens that I don’t know anything about.
Encompass heath physician careers has a lot of 1099 gigs for IPR. Lifepoint health (New Kindred) is another. Typically the good jobs go quick and the ones that have been posted a while are there for a reason.
There is also usphysiatry and other PMR groups. USPhysiatry takes 30%, but you can be 1099. HCA healthcare is another hospital group.
Some of it depends on if you are focused on location. Then call or look up hospitals/groups in your area and see what they have available or not. If you are willing to move wherever then you can usually make more money.
I would think if you want to work only 4 days a week you would do better with SNF consults. With IPR you will have to admit and discharge 5 days per week at most places. If you wanted to be a medical director you would have to work 5 days per week. You can also (rarely) find consulting only IRF positions, but you would still have to consult on new patients.
If you do 1099 you are technically your own boss, but still depend on volume to make money. I don’t know what you necessarily fear by exploitation, but they could want you to see more people than you want to see. Or cover more often. You will also want to find good insurance and billing that doesn’t cost too much money.
That being said, I work for an academic institution doing inpatient rehab. I make good money, have a fantastic work-life balance most of the time, and have a great retirement/benefits package. The downsides are politics and overall lower compensation than 1099. But I also only really work about 5-6 hours per day and don’t have too much work stress. I also have many opportunities to do outpatient, teaching, or others if I wanted to.
My first job was rural inpatient. The starting salary, student loan payments and sign on bonus were nice. But the place lacked expansion opportunities and the work culture was terrible.
There is a reason so many docs change jobs in the first several years out of residency. It is hard to say what you will like and what you want without digging in a bit and getting some experience. There will be downsides and frustrations with any job you take, but doesn’t mean the road is much happier somewhere else. But hope some of that helps.
