Thanks for your post -- that clears up a lot for me.
I'm a little confused on something; let's say that a job listing advertises a salary of "$801-$900/day." Are you saying that this figure includes the per diem allowance, hotel room fees and rental car fees? Or would my salary be $800/day, and there would be additional funds provided for the per diem, hotel and car?
To give you something to go on, this is one of the many locums jobs I was browsing earlier:
Lastly, is it ever possible to develop a strong enough relationship with the locums agency be able to work as an employee of them (in lieu of the 1099 deal)?