Former Staffing Insider Reveals How Facility Bills Get Inflated
Are You Overpaying Staffing Agencies?
The rate you approve and the rate you ultimately pay can become two very different numbers.
Send us one recent invoice. We’ll show you what actually happened.
No contract. No obligation. You can redact names and sensitive information.
- Night differentials.
- Weekend premiums.
- Short-notice incentives.
- Overtime.
- Platform fees.
One fee at a time, they don’t look devastating.
But when they stack?
A shift you thought would cost $40 an hour can land on your invoice at $50, $60, or more.
And across hundreds—or thousands—of temporary staffing hours?
That can become tens or hundreds of thousands of dollars disappearing from your staffing budget.
WATCH: HOW STAFFING BILLS GET INFLATED
You were told the rate.
But were you told the final cost?
Here’s how the game can work.
- Night Differential+$4/hr
- Weekend Premium+$6/hr
- Short-Notice Incentive+$5/hr
- Administrative / Platform Cost+$3/hr
- That’s an additional$18 / HOUR
- At 500 agency hours per month+$9,000 / MONTH
- One facility, one year+$108,000 / YEAR
- Five buildings+$540,000
- Twenty buildings+$2.16 MILLION
Small differences become very large numbers when multiplied across an entire staffing operation.
The question isn’t whether this happens somewhere.
The question is whether it’s happening to you.
The worst part?
You may not know it’s happening.
Your rate sheet won’t always tell you.
Your sales rep probably won’t highlight it.
And by the time finance sees the invoice, the shift has already been worked.
- They add it.
- You pay it.
- They profit.
Then everybody shrugs and calls it:
“Industry standard.”
We call it what it can become:
Legalized theft by fine print.
But is YOUR staffing agency doing this?
Don’t guess.
Send us the bill.
UPLOAD YOUR STAFFING BILL
Find out whether you’re overpaying.
THE STAFFING AGENCY MARKUP PLAYBOOK
There are a lot of ways the rate you see can become something very different on the final invoice.
- Night differentials
- Weekend premiums
- Holiday multipliers
- Short-notice / urgent fill
- Overtime
- Incentives
- Platform & administrative fees
Sometimes they stack.
Your staffing shortage becomes their pricing opportunity.
Is any individual charge necessarily wrong?
No.
But when a facility doesn’t understand exactly what it is paying and why, the system becomes incredibly profitable for the vendor.
That’s why we built the Red Pen Audit.
You don’t need to take our word for any of this.
Let’s look at YOUR invoice.
THE RED PEN AUDIT
Send Us One Recent Staffing Invoice.
We’ll put a red pen through the numbers and show you what you’re actually paying.
Your audit can include:
Clinician Type
CNA, LPN, RN, or other temporary clinical labor.
Hours Purchased
How many temporary staffing hours were actually billed.
Effective Hourly Bill Rate
Not merely the advertised rate.
What you actually paid.
Premiums & Additional Charges
We identify visible differentials, premiums, fees, multipliers, incentives, and other charges materially affecting the bill.
Blended Staffing Cost
Your effective cost across the invoice.
StaffHealth Comparison
What comparable coverage could look like using StaffHealth’s pricing model.
Cost Variance
Difference per hour.
Difference for the invoice.
Estimated monthly difference.
Estimated annual difference.
SEE EXACTLY WHERE THE MONEY WENT.
We aren’t going to tell you every staffing agency is overcharging.
We don’t need to.
Your invoice will tell us.
If your agency is giving you an excellent deal?
We’ll tell you.
If you’re paying significantly more than necessary?
We’ll show you where.
If premiums are stacking?
We’ll circle them.
If one clinician type is costing you disproportionately more?
We’ll identify it.
If the difference could become six figures annually?
We’ll calculate it.
NOT READY TO SEND US AN INVOICE?
Fine.
Give Us Three Numbers.
What are you currently paying?
We’ll run a quick rate comparison and estimate what the difference could mean monthly and annually.
Think you’re already getting a great deal?
Prove it.
What if the problem isn’t one facility?
A $5/hour variance at one building may be irritating.
Across 18 buildings, it can become a board-level number.
At $5/hour, 500 hours, 10 facilities, 12 months
$300,000.At $10/hour
$600,000.The Portfolio Staffing Cost Audit
StaffHealth will identify which facilities appear to have the highest contingent-labor exposure — and where the largest savings opportunity may be hiding.
which facilities have the highest temporary staffing exposure
where rates appear highest
where outside staffing is concentrated
where weekend staffing pressure appears greatest
which buildings may represent the biggest cost-reduction opportunities
what the potential portfolio-wide difference could look like
With StaffHealth, the math is boring on purpose.
Because we got tired of a staffing industry where nobody seems able to answer one simple question:
“What is this shift actually going to cost me?”
- Base staffing rate$40
- StaffHealth markup+$8
- Your bill rate$48
A fixed 20% markup on the base rate. Same as it is on every other shift.
- No StaffHealth night differential.
- No StaffHealth weekend premium.
- No StaffHealth short-notice multiplier.
The clinician’s rate is yours to set. Ours never moves.
Staffing shouldn’t require an investigation to understand the bill.
Unfortunately, sometimes it does.
That’s why we’re offering to investigate yours for free.
Think you’re already getting a great deal?
Good. Prove it.
Seriously.
Maybe you negotiated aggressively.
- Maybe your rates are already excellent.
- Maybe there are no meaningful stacked charges.
- Maybe your current arrangement is hard to beat.
- Maybe your agency really is giving you a great deal.
There’s one way to know.
Send us the invoice. If the numbers are good, we’ll tell you.
Are you overpaying staffing agencies?
FAQ
Are you saying every staffing agency does this?
No.
That’s precisely why we’re asking to see the invoice.
The Red Pen Audit determines what is happening in your specific situation.
What happens to my invoice?
We use the staffing-related information to perform your cost analysis. You may redact names, patient information, account numbers, and unrelated sensitive information before uploading.
What if we’re already getting good rates?
Then the numbers should show it.
We’ll tell you.
Do I have to switch staffing companies?
No.
The first step is simply understanding what you’re paying.
Is the audit free?
Yes.
What if I don’t want to upload an invoice?
Use the Quick Rate Check instead or reply to our email with your CNA, LPN, and RN bill rates.
We operate multiple facilities. Can you analyze all of them?
Yes.
Select the Portfolio Staffing Cost Audit and we’ll evaluate the opportunity at the operator level.
STOP GUESSING.
The next invoice is already coming.
The question is whether you know exactly what is inside it.
Send us one bill.
We’ll show you what the numbers say.