Hey, Sharon, how's the day going for you? Oh, lovely. I am looking forward to this one also. Yeah, this one, per diem. A lot of CRNAs might have heard this term, but maybe not understand exactly what it means. If you've done 1099 for a while, maybe you've worked for an agency or someone that said, hey, we're going to pay you a per diem. And it basically is a reimbursement of expenses while you're traveling. And we're going to kind of go through this today. So this will be a brief section, but I want people to understand what this actually means. So what is per diem cover? It can cover lodging. So Sharon, you take a position where you're traveling an hour and a half from your house to work. And they say, we're going to give you a per diem rate for lodging that day. So you stay at a hotel. They basically are going to cover that cost of that hotel up to whatever the per diem rate is. Per diem rates can vary by state and locale. I mean, we know that in North Carolina, the per diem rate's probably going to be less than this New York City, right? Sure. Per diem rates can vary by where you are. And the federal government sets these per diem rates. Or you can take the average per diem rate. Which way do you come out better? The other thing it can cover, it can cover bills. They can give you an allowance for breakfast, lunch, dinner. And you can even have an allowance for snacks in there. All right. Yeah, the IRS says they have to ensure employees have adequate sustenance during their travels. Wow, because once I get there, I'm going to work all day and not even get a break. That's right. That's right. So well, if you get paid your per diem, you sock it up. You're going to eat a real big steak when you're off, right? Been there, done that. Grab your pack of nads and keep rolling. I hope you get a pee break, right? Yeah. It can also cover incidentals, such as tips, transportation, and miscellaneous costs. You know what? You had to stop and get you some Advil because you had a headache because you drank too much wine. No, no, no, no. You had a headache because you weren't feeling well, right? So per diem just covers some of these incidentals for traveling CRNAs out there that might not have been covered if you didn't have the per diem, right? The other thing about the per diem is that per diem is non-taxable. You know, I've often thought about that. I used to do some per diem work. And whenever he would reimburse me, he would put it down as part of my salary. And we had to have a powwow about that. I mean, it should not be if it's done properly. Per diem is calculated, like I said earlier, based upon the location of the trip, you know, certain areas of the country are going to have higher per diem rates than other ones. The government does determine that to make sure that it is fair. And in some cases, businesses can establish their own per diem rates based on industry standards. And sometimes we see that in the CRNA community. You know, what is it typically given as a per diem rate to a CRNA? So all these things go into factor and play. Making sure you understand per diem, making sure, like you said, that it's non-taxable to you, which it should be, are all the things that you need to make sure you know as a CRNA, just to educate yourself.

per diem

CRNAs

reimbursement

travel expenses

tax-free