Top Physician Recruiting Firms in 2026: An Honest Comparison
Every physician recruiting firm describes itself the same way. The differences are in who owns it, how it gets paid, who actually runs your search, and what happens when the physician leaves. Here is how the national firms line up on those questions, including where we fall short of them.
A hiring manager searching for the top physician recruiting firms gets a page of advertisements and a few lists written by the firms on them. This is a list written by one of the firms too, so read it with that in mind. We have tried to make it the comparison we would want a client to make before calling anyone: what kind of firm each one is, who owns it, how it gets paid, where it is strongest, and the seven questions whose written answers separate them. Our own entry is held to the same questions, and there are searches where we would tell you to call someone else.
Three kinds of firm, and why ownership matters
The market sorts into three models. Retained search firms are paid in installments as the search runs and work it exclusively; they are built for leadership roles and the subspecialties where candidates must be found rather than attracted. Contingency firms are paid only when a physician they presented starts, as a percentage of first-year compensation, and you can run two in parallel; they are built for the great majority of physician and advanced practice searches. Outsourced recruiting and staffing companies embed recruiters in your organization or run a department for you, which is a different purchase. Our retained versus contingency guide goes deeper on when each is right.
Ownership cuts across all three and is the comparison most lists skip. Several of the largest firms are divisions of publicly traded staffing companies; others are owned by private equity; a few large ones and most small ones are privately held by the people who run them. It matters in two places. The agreement: a public or PE-owned firm standardizes terms and its account manager usually cannot change them, while a privately owned firm can. And the recruiter: volume-measured teams rotate, and the person who sold the search is often not the person running it, while a privately owned firm is more likely to assign one recruiter who stays. Scale is a real advantage; so is a relationship. Decide which this search needs.
The firms
| Firm | Ownership | Fee model | Strongest at | Best suited to |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Merritt Hawkins | AMN Healthcare (publicly traded) | Primarily retained search | National reach, every specialty, deep data on physician compensation and incentives from its annual review of its own searches | Health systems running many searches at once that want one vendor and a retained engagement |
| Jackson Physician Search | Jackson Healthcare (privately held, family-owned) | Retained and contingency engagements | Physician and physician-leader search for hospitals and systems, strong in rural and community hospital markets | Hospitals that want a large firm with a relationship model and the option of a retained engagement |
| CompHealth permanent placement | CHG Healthcare (privately held) | Contingency permanent placement alongside the largest locum tenens bench in the market | Breadth across physicians and advanced practice, and the ability to cover a vacancy with a locum while the permanent search runs | Organizations that already use CompHealth for locums and want one account for both |
| The Medicus Firm | Privately held | Retained and hybrid engagements | Physician search for hospitals and groups with a structured, process-heavy approach and published placement research | Employers that want a retained search with a defined methodology and reporting cadence |
| Cejka Search | Cross Country Healthcare (publicly traded) | Retained search | Physician, advanced practice, and healthcare executive search for academic centers and large systems | Leadership roles and faculty searches where an executive-search process is expected |
| Curative | Doximity (publicly traded) | Permanent physician search backed by the Doximity physician network | Reach into a very large physician audience through the parent platform | Employers that want sourcing scale and are comfortable with a technology-led process |
| Pinnacle Health Group, Enterprise Medical Recruiting, Britt Medical Search, and the independents | Privately held | Mostly contingency | Named-recruiter relationships, negotiable terms, and depth in the specialties each firm has placed for years | Single searches, specialty-specific needs, and employers who want to talk to the person running the search |
| MedStaff Nationwide | Privately held (Milford, Connecticut) | Contingency, no retainer, fee due after the start date | Behavioral health, primary care, hospital medicine, advanced practice, and community health centers; 27-day average time to fill; 96 percent twelve-month retention | Hospitals, FQHCs, and groups that want one named recruiter, a written timeline, and to pay only for a hire |
Ownership and fee models as publicly described by each firm at the time of writing, October 2026. Terms change and vary by engagement; confirm them with the firm before you compare proposals.
Merritt Hawkins
The best-known name in the field and part of AMN Healthcare, a publicly traded staffing company. Primarily retained, with national reach and a research operation whose annual review of the incentives in its own searches is the most-cited compensation reference in physician recruiting. Its scale is the product: for a health system opening twenty searches a year across every specialty, one retained relationship with a firm this size is a reasonable way to run them. The trade-offs are the ones that come with scale, a large account team and standardized terms, and a retained fee owed as the search runs.
Jackson Physician Search
Part of Jackson Healthcare, which remains privately held and family-owned, a rarity at its size. Strong in hospital and health system physician search, including rural and community hospitals, and offers both retained and contingency engagements. Its sibling companies cover locum tenens, which is useful when a permanent search needs interim coverage from one group.
CompHealth
CompHealth is best known for the largest locum tenens bench in the market, and its permanent placement division recruits physicians and advanced practice providers on contingency. The pairing is the point: an organization already covering a vacancy with a CompHealth locum can run the permanent search through the same account. CHG Healthcare, the parent, is privately held.
The Medicus Firm
A privately held national firm that runs physician search on retained and hybrid models with a structured methodology and a reporting cadence it publishes. Employers who want a defined process, a dedicated team, and research on placement trends tend to land here.
Cejka Search
A retained firm owned by Cross Country Healthcare, publicly traded, with a long history in physician, advanced practice, and healthcare executive search, particularly for academic medical centers and large systems. If the role is a department chair or a chief medical officer, this is the model the search committee will expect.
Curative
A permanent physician recruiting firm owned by Doximity, the physician network, which gives it reach into a very large audience of practicing physicians. Technology-led sourcing at scale; a different approach from the relationship firms, and attractive to employers who want breadth of outreach above all.
The independents
Pinnacle Health Group, Enterprise Medical Recruiting, Britt Medical Search, and a few hundred other privately held firms, most working on contingency, many built around a handful of specialties or a region. This is where the terms are negotiable, the recruiter who answers the phone is the one running the search, and the depth is in whatever the firm has placed for a decade. It is also where quality varies most, which is what the scorecard below is for.
MedStaff Nationwide
We are one of the independents: privately owned, based in Milford, Connecticut, contingency only, with no retainer and the fee due after the physician starts. Our bench is strongest in behavioral health, primary care, hospital medicine, and advanced practice, and in community health centers, because those are the searches we run every day. Across permanent clinical searches we average 27 days from signed agreement to accepted offer and 96 percent retention at twelve months, and every placement carries a replacement guarantee. We are thinner in surgical subspecialties and we do not run retained executive searches; for a department chair at an academic center we would point you to a retained firm.
The seven questions that separate them
1. What exactly is the fee, and when is it due?
Contingency fees across the industry run roughly 20 to 30 percent of first-year compensation. The questions underneath are what “compensation” means (base only, or sign-on, relocation, and production bonuses too), when the fee is due (after the start date, or at offer), and whether anything is owed if nobody is hired. Our guide to recruiter fees has the full picture.
2. What is your average time to fill, and how many searches is it based on?
Every firm has a fast story. Ask for the average across all searches in your specialty over the last year, and the count. A firm that will not give you the number is telling you something.
3. What does the guarantee cover?
A replacement guarantee should state the window, what triggers it, and what you get: a new search at no charge, started immediately. “We stand behind our placements” is not a term.
4. Who runs the search, and will I have their phone number?
At many large firms the person on the sales call hands the search to a sourcing team. That is a legitimate model, but you should know it before you sign, and you should know who answers when the candidate goes quiet the week before the site visit.
5. How do you find candidates?
Reposting your job on the boards you already use is not recruiting. Direct outreach to physicians who are not looking, in your specialty, with a conversation about what would make them move, is. Ask what share of the firm's recent placements came from outreach rather than applicants.
6. What have you closed in my specialty and my setting in the last year?
A list of specialties is not depth. Closed searches in your specialty, with a client in a setting like yours you can call, is.
7. What will I receive every week?
A written update with outreach counts, conversations, candidates in process, and next steps. A firm that reports only when it has a candidate is a firm you will be chasing.
A scorecard for comparing proposals
Put each firm's written answers in a table like this one. Most comparisons are decided by the fourth row.
| Term | A good answer | A warning sign |
|---|---|---|
| Fee | A percentage of first-year base, in writing, due after the start date | A percentage of total compensation, or installments owed whether or not anyone is hired |
| Time to fill | The firm's average across all searches, with the count behind it | A best case, or "it depends" |
| Guarantee | Replacement at no charge if the physician leaves inside a stated window | "We stand behind our placements" with no window and no terms |
| Who runs the search | One named recruiter from intake to start date | A sales lead who hands you to a sourcing team |
| Sourcing | Direct outreach to physicians who are not applying anywhere | Reposting your job and forwarding applicants |
| Specialty depth | Searches closed in your specialty in the last year, with references in your setting | A list of every specialty the firm has ever touched |
| Reporting | A weekly written update: outreach, conversations, candidates, next steps | A call when there is a candidate |
Which firm for which search
- Twenty searches a year across every specialty: a national retained firm, or one national contingency firm plus a specialty firm for the hard ones.
- A department chair, chief medical officer, or academic faculty search: a retained executive-search firm. That is the process the committee expects and it is built for it.
- A hospitalist, psychiatrist, primary care physician, OB/GYN, or advanced practice provider: a contingency firm with depth in that specialty, run by a named recruiter. Pay for the result.
- A vacancy you need covered while the search runs: a firm that does both locums and permanent, with the conversion terms written before the locum starts.
- A community health center or rural site: a firm that has placed there before and leads with loan repayment, HPSA scoring, and schedule rather than base salary. Our FQHC recruiting playbook explains why that matters.
Whichever firm you call, the agreement and the weekly report are the product. Compare those, not the brochures. Our own answers are on the physician recruiters page, in writing, which is where every firm's should be.
Frequently asked questions
- Who are the largest physician recruiting firms?
- By size and name recognition: Merritt Hawkins, part of AMN Healthcare; Jackson Physician Search, part of Jackson Healthcare; CompHealth's permanent placement division, part of CHG Healthcare; The Medicus Firm; Cejka Search, part of Cross Country Healthcare; and Curative, owned by Doximity. Below them sit several hundred independent and specialty firms, including MedStaff Nationwide.
- What is the difference between a retained and a contingency physician recruiting firm?
- A retained firm is paid in installments as the search runs, usually a third at signing, a third at a milestone, and a third at placement, and works the search exclusively. A contingency firm is paid only when a candidate it presented starts, as a percentage of first-year compensation, and you can run several in parallel. Retained suits leadership and rare subspecialty searches; contingency suits most physician and advanced practice searches where you want to pay for a result.
- How much do physician recruiting firms charge?
- Contingency fees across the industry run roughly 20 to 30 percent of first-year base compensation, due after the physician starts. Retained fees are similar in total but paid in installments whether or not the search succeeds, and often add expenses. Always ask what compensation the percentage applies to (base only, or bonuses too), when it is due, and what the replacement guarantee covers.
- Does it matter whether a recruiting firm is privately owned or private equity-backed?
- It shows up in the agreement and in who you talk to. Firms owned by public companies or private equity standardize terms, run searches through teams, and measure recruiters on volume. Privately owned firms are more likely to negotiate the agreement, assign one named recruiter for the whole search, and keep that recruiter for years. Neither model is wrong; the question is whether you want scale or a relationship for this particular search.
- How long does a physician search take?
- Industry averages for permanent physician searches run several months to a year depending on specialty and market. MedStaff Nationwide averages 27 days from signed agreement to accepted offer across permanent clinical searches, with subspecialty and rural searches running longer. Ask every firm for its average, not its best case, and for the number of searches behind that average.
- Is MedStaff Nationwide a physician recruiting firm?
- Yes. MedStaff Nationwide is a privately owned permanent recruitment firm based in Milford, Connecticut, recruiting physicians, nurse practitioners, physician assistants, behavioral health clinicians, and dental professionals nationwide on contingency, with a 27-day average time to fill, a replacement guarantee, and 96 percent twelve-month retention across placements.