Clinician FAQs

Virtual care is now just one of many access points for patient healthcare, and new applications within medical specialties are growing by the day. Common virtual care specialties include urgent care, primary care, behavioral/mental health, women's health, men's health, pediatrics, chronic condition management, diabetes and CGM, allergies, weight loss, and dermatology.

Yes, subject to state-specific regulations and rules, certain exceptions such as for controlled substances, and constraints within the clinical protocol guidelines for each client. Clinicians can prescribe medications via telehealth, though it’s at each clinician’s professional discretion. A good outcome in virtual care does not always result in a prescription, as sometimes the appropriate care pathway is to order a lab test, refer out to an in-person clinician, or take another medically-appropriate action. Note that some states require a collaborative agreement for nurse practitioners to prescribe. See Collaborative Agreements for NPs for more information.

You can work as much or as little as you would like in virtual care with Wheel. With the proliferation of telemedicine, some clinicians have replaced their brick and mortar practice by practicing only virtual care, while others simply supplement their income with telehealth consults during their available time.

For most opportunities, you don’t need any prior virtual care practice experience to work in telemedicine. Some opportunities require some experience in telemedicine or phone triage. At Wheel, we educate every clinician thoroughly in Webside Manner, client treatment protocols, and virtual care principles and best practices. In order to work with Wheel, you must be credentialed up to NCQA standards and have at least two years of in-person practice experience.

Though not required, we recommend that our clinicians procure at least three state licenses to access the most opportunities with our virtual care client partners. Many of our clients offer nationwide services, and by securing additional licenses, you may be able to access more consults and increase your earning potential.

If you are a nurse practitioner, it’s important to know that some states require a collaborating or supervising physician for full practice authority. In order to work with Wheel in these states, you’ll need to secure a collaborating physician for yourself. See Collaborative Agreements for NPs for more information.

Our client needs are constantly changing and we support companies with services nationwide, so it can be difficult to recommend specific geographic needs. However, typically our clinicians find that licenses for large population states like Texas, California, New York, IIllinois, and Florida are valuable and well worth the effort. By procuring at least three state licenses, you should be in a better position to access opportunities with one of Wheel’s virtual care company partners.

The Wheel Provider Group is made up of a nationwide network of virtual care clinicians from a variety of specialties including: behavioral health, dermatology, family medicine, internal medicine, emergency medicine, women’s health, endocrinology, cardiology, and sleep medicine.

This independent clinician network includes physicians (MDs & DOs), nurse practitioners, registered nurses, physician assistants, and behavioral health specialists (licensed psychologists, LCSW, LMFT, PMHNP, licensed psychiatrists, and psychiatric nurse practitioners).

At Wheel, our mission is to change the way healthcare works by focusing on clinicians. We are committed to protecting your licenses and livelihood always.

We fiercely advocate for Wheel clinicians by meticulously vetting our virtual care company partners for above-board clinical and regulatory compliance, implementing up-to-date practice standards, and ensuring clinical team members are prepared to deliver the highest-quality virtual care.

Wheel is different from other telehealth companies because you can work as much or as little as you prefer. There is no pressure to overcommit to schedules that don’t work with your lifestyle. You’re in complete control! You also have access to a diversity of treatment areas with more work opportunities to deliver patient care than if you were to commit to a single telehealth company.

Independence of practice is also paramount at Wheel, as you are the clinical decision-maker. You’ll never be encouraged to over-prescribe working through Wheel.

For too long, clinicians have been commoditized rather than viewed as the highly-skilled, knowledgeable, passionate, empathetic professionals they are. At Wheel, we celebrate you — the professionals at the center of healthcare delivery.

Wheel is a technology company that connects clinicians like you to the best opportunities to work in virtual care. Simultaneously, we connect enterprise companies to the Wheel Provider Group - a network of board-certified telehealth clinicians. This provides clinicians with a better way to work and companies with a scalable way to deliver nationwide virtual care to patients.

We’ve built a singular destination for clinicians to find more work-life balance while increasing opportunities to provide care to more patients. With Wheel, you can work with less bureaucracy, more independence, and rest assured that we’ve always got your back. With the flexibility to design your own schedule, you can rediscover the freedom you deserve.

By matching your skills and licenses with the needs of our company partners, you get a simple way to find work in telehealth without having to juggle multiple telehealth companies to patch together a complete schedule. One contract, one credentialing effort, and one schedule — Wheel makes working in telehealth easy.

We’re seeking clinicians from all 50 states who have at least two years of in-person clinical practice experience.

The network includes physicians (MDs & DOs), nurse practitioners, registered nurses, physician assistants, and behavioral health specialists (licensed psychologists, LCSW, LMFT, PMHNP, licensed psychiatrists, and psychiatric nurse practitioners). Once your application is accepted, we will initiate the one-time credentialing process to NCQA standards.

We match clinicians to remote care opportunities with a variety of client partners to provide everything from virtual primary care, lab requisitions and reviews, remote patient monitoring, chronic condition management, and behavioral health services.

Clinicians get the opportunity to work with multiple virtual care companies across diverse healthcare specialties: retail medicine, labs and diagnostics, primary and urgent care, health plans, life sciences, behavioral health organizations, condition management solutions, and direct-to-consumer health navigation.

Clinicians at Wheel are 1099 contractors, and as such are in control of their schedule.

After joining the clinician network, we present you with one or more client opportunities, and based on their needs, you can choose the workload and schedule that works for you.

Clinicians are paid by the patient visit or by the hour, depending on the virtual care opportunity.

Yes. Wheel provides medical malpractice insurance coverage that covers the full scope of each virtual care consult. This coverage also extends to collaborating physicians who are part of the clinician network.

At this time, Wheel does not provide collaborative and supervisory matching services. Wheel clinicians have had the most opportunity finding collaborative relationships through colleague word of mouth, posting to social media groups, in-person and virtual networking events, and connecting on LinkedIn.

Wheel clinicians are educated in Webside Manner (the virtual equivalent of bedside manner); in our virtual care partners’ brands of care, clinical protocols, and technology platforms; and in the latest patient safety guidelines and HIPAA regulations.

For some opportunities, we also offer clinical shadows where new clinician team members can virtually tag along with an experienced Wheel clinician to get to know the consult process and learn how to work within the platform.

At Wheel, we want clinicians to feel empowered to deliver the highest level of patient care from day one. We support you throughout the onboarding process so that you start working with full confidence, serving more patients across the country with compassionate, convenient, and accessible care.

Our blog features profiles of active Wheel clinicians — highlighting their diverse backgrounds, the reason they practice virtual care, the benefits they’ve experienced from working with Wheel, and other insights you may find useful when exploring opportunities to work in telehealth.

If you still have questions, our clinical care team would be happy to help. Contact us and someone from the team will be in touch shortly.

This depends on the type of care being delivered. Asynchronous consults typically range from 5 to 15 minutes. Synchronous primary care visits typically range from 10 to 20 minutes. And behavioral health visits often range from 30-90 minutes.

All you need to practice virtual care is a computer with a web camera, a cell phone, and a reliable internet connection. Some client opportunities have specific technology requirements such as a hardwire connection, but most clinicians don’t need to purchase any new equipment to get started.

Wheel medical directors and legal counsel scrupulously evaluate all clinical intake procedures and treatment guidelines prior to launching virtual care company partners. On an ongoing basis, we review care decisions for quality assurance purposes, providing feedback to clinicians on their clinical performance.

Patient safety is of utmost concern, and we would never put our clinicians at risk or in situations that could jeopardize their licenses. As our CEO often says, a prescription is not always the right answer in virtual care — often it’s simply care navigation or referral.

Yes, subject to state-specific regulations and rules, certain exceptions such as for controlled substances, and constraints within the clinical protocol guidelines for each client.

Clinicians can prescribe medications with Wheel, though it’s at each clinician’s professional discretion. A good outcome in virtual care does not always result in a prescription, as sometimes the appropriate care pathway is to order a lab test, refer out to an in-person clinician, or take another medically-appropriate action. Note that some states require a collaborative agreement for nurse practitioners to prescribe. See Collaborative Agreements for NPs for more information.

Within the consult platform there is an area to document SOAP notes and the treatment plan.

For an asynchronous consult, a clinician will be notified via email, within the portal, or via text message, and then have a set time window to complete the assessment or review. The required response time can range widely, typically from 1 hour to 24 hours.

For a synchronous consult, a clinician will be notified via email, within the portal, or via text message that a patient is waiting, and then have a set time window to begin the consult via video call. This can range, but typically a response is needed within 5 minutes to an hour. In some cases, the care visit may also be scheduled in advance.

Some states allow nurse practitioners to practice independently without physician oversight, while other states require physician oversight for NP practice, prescribing, or both.

A collaborating physician is generally the term used to describe this supervisory role and is established with a Collaborative Practice Agreement (term may vary by state).

While the exact requirements of a collaborative relationship vary by state, some level of physician involvement is required for full practice authority in several states.

Further details about the collaborative requirements in your state can be found in your state’s Nursing Practice Act and through the American Association of Nurse Practitioners.

At this time Wheel does not provide collaborative and supervisory matching services. Our clinicians have had the most opportunity finding collaborative relationships through colleague word of mouth, posting to social media groups, in-person and virtual networking events, and connecting on LinkedIn.

At this time Wheel does not offer collaborator compensation. The collaborative agreement is between you and your collaborator and compensation should be arranged outside of the Wheel platform.

However, Wheel does provide malpractice insurance for you and your collaborating or supervising physician as long as the physician is also part of the Wheel network.

Wheel nurse practitioners have found success seeking out collaborating physicians through friends, family, or work connections. Ask around, post on social media, and find industry networking groups that may be able to connect you to someone.

Many state board websites and/or state professional nursing organizations provide collaborating agreement templates for you to use. If not, the agreement should be drafted by you and your collaborative physician based on state requirements. If applicable, please be prepared to provide the signed collaborative agreement during Wheel’s credentialing process.

No, unfortunately in order for your collaborative physician to be covered by Wheel’s malpractice insurance, he or she must be a member of the Wheel clinician network.

Read our article outlining the physician-np collaborative practice agreement and learn how to safely and compliantly set one up.

To apply to the Wheel Provider Group, you’ll first need to complete an interest form and pre-application form on our website. (Select Work with Us to get started.)

Within a few days to a week, someone from the recruitment team will be in contact with you to schedule a call and learn more about your experience, clinical interests, preferred schedule and modality, and licensure.

If your skills, schedule, and licensure align with our current company partners, you’ll move on to the credentialing phase. This process can be completed in a matter of weeks, depending on how quickly you can provide the necessary documentation.

We review applications on a weekly basis. If you’ve applied and it’s been more than a week, please contact us. If it’s been less than a week, watch for an email from our recruitment team, and make sure to check your spam folder for messages from Wheel.

If you’ve already spoken to our recruiters and we were not able to find a current position that matched your skills and licensure, stay tuned — our client needs change over time. If you’ve recently obtained additional licenses or your availability has changed, please reach out again and we can discuss this.

Clinicians typically get paid by the patient visit, though in some cases may be compensated by the hour. Compensation depends on the client opportunity, and Wheel will always provide full transparency regarding payment details for the clinician’s consideration prior to a clinician beginning work for a particular client.

Virtual care clinicians at Wheel are 1099 contractors and can choose to work as much or as little as they would like to meet financial goals, subject to client partner demand constraints.

Asynchronous visits typically pay a bit less than synchronous video visits, due to having a shorter consult duration and longer response windows. Synchronous visits are compensated at a higher rate due to the longer visit duration and more rapid responses required.

To find the best opportunities, it’s often necessary to procure additional state licensure to reach the most patients. Learn more about procuring multi-state licensure for physicians and multi-state licensure for nurse practitioners on our blog.