Covering Gaps With Relief Veterinarians

Relief work isn't a fringe arrangement — AVMA's Census of Veterinarians puts 9.1% of private-practice veterinarians in relief or contract positions, with a reported mean income of $123,501 and median of $120,000 (income earned 2023, n=153).

It's a real, sized segment of the workforce your practice can draw on, not an improvised stopgap.

The clearest cases for booking it: an associate's parental or medical leave, the gap between an associate's resignation and their replacement's start date, a planned surgery day or seasonal volume spike the regular schedule can't absorb, or simply buying time to run a proper search for an associate hire rather than rushing one to fill an empty slot.

There's a retention argument for using it, too, not just a coverage one.

AAHA's 2023 retention survey found roughly 30% of veterinary-community respondents planned to leave their current job, and burnout runs high industry-wide — Merck's 2023 Veterinary Wellbeing Study put high or very-high burnout at 20% among companion-animal veterinarians specifically.

An open shift doesn't just go uncovered; it gets absorbed by the associates who stayed, and that's exactly the kind of quietly resented workload that shows up in an exit interview months later.

Relief coverage is one of the more direct levers you have against that.

Most relief veterinarians are engaged as 1099 contractors, but that status has to be earned by the facts of the relationship, not asserted in the booking agreement.

The IRS weighs behavioral control, financial control, and the type of relationship; the Department of Labor applies its own six-factor economic-reality test; and some states layer on a stricter test still. The exposure for getting this wrong sits with your practice, not the veterinarian — the IRS can hold a business liable for a misclassified worker's employment taxes where there was no reasonable basis for the contractor label.

One state-specific wrinkle worth knowing if you're in California: Labor Code §2783(b) exempts a licensed veterinarian from the state's strict ABC test, routing them to the more flexible Borello standard instead — but that exemption names veterinarians specifically and doesn't extend to relief veterinary technicians doing comparable work in the same practice.

Don't assume the same classification logic applies across every role on your relief roster.

This page doesn't re-run the full test-by-test walkthrough — classifying relief staff: W-2 or 1099 covers the IRS, DOL, and state-ABC-test mechanics in full, including when a Form SS-8 determination is worth filing.

Read it before your relief arrangement becomes a pattern rather than a one-off.

Don't assume your practice's professional liability policy automatically extends to a relief veterinarian, and don't assume it doesn't — confirm it, in writing, before the shift.

AVMA PLIT markets its individual coverage as necessary specifically because a veterinarian working at a practice, including part-time, relief, or emergency work, is not automatically protected by the practice owner's policy.

That logic cuts both ways: don't assume the reverse is automatically true either — the only way to know which policy, if either, actually covers the shift is to ask both sides and get the answer in writing before the shift.

For scale, AVMA PLIT's professional-liability program carries limits of up to $6,000,000 per claim and $8,000,000 annually, with a separate optional Veterinary License Defense endorsement covering up to $25,000 a year in legal fees if a state board opens a complaint against a license (figures as published on AVMA PLIT's own program pages — confirm current terms directly with PLIT before relying on them for a specific engagement).

Ask a 1099 relief veterinarian for proof of their own current policy before their first shift, and get it in writing whether either party needs to be added as an additional insured.

If you're sourcing coverage through a relief staffing organization that employs the veterinarian as a W-2 employee, this question is usually handled by that organization rather than by you directly — but confirm it rather than assume it, the same way you would with a 1099 booking.

If the shift involves controlled substances, add one more check: DEA registration is tied to the individual practitioner and generally required separately at each principal place of business, with a narrow exemption for mobile, same-state work under the Veterinary Medicine Mobility Act of 2014.

A relief veterinarian's existing DEA registration at their home practice doesn't automatically cover dispensing at yours — confirm it before scheduling, not during the shift.

This is general information, not legal, tax, or insurance advice. Confirm worker classification with an accountant or employment attorney, and confirm liability coverage directly with your malpractice carrier or PLIT, before booking a relief veterinarian.

Treat a relief booking as a genuine audition, because it functions like one whether you plan for it or not.

Veterinarians frequently move from covering shifts at a practice into a permanent role there — it's one of the more natural paths into an associate hire, since both sides get a real look at caseload, pace, and fit before either commits to anything longer.

That only works if the booking itself was clean: clear rate and hours, what happens if the day runs long, who covers callbacks on cases the relief veterinarian saw, and whose liability policy applies.

Relief veterinarians compare notes with each other, and a practice that's vague on these basics gets a reputation in that network faster than it expects to.