Final week, Representatives Yvette D. Clarke (D-NY) and Michael Lawler (R-NY) led a bipartisan letter urging the Division of Homeland Safety (DHS) to exempt healthcare staff from the brand new $100,000 H-1B visa software charge. The letter, addressed to DHS Secretary Kristi Noem, was signed by 98 of their colleagues and endorsed by many medical and healthcare associations.
“Worsening workforce shortages throughout all healthcare professions are considerably diminishing entry to care in rural and concrete communities throughout the nation,” the letter writers said. “In response to the Well being Assets and Companies Administration, practically 87 million Individuals stay in areas Federally designated as missing sufficient medical professionals to handle the group’s healthcare wants. Doctor demand might exceed provide by as much as 86,000 within the subsequent decade, and medical laboratory science packages are educating lower than half the variety of medical laboratory professionals wanted. These shortages can’t be crammed by the home workforce alone, and projections will worsen if well being care employers can’t proceed to recruit and retain worldwide well being care staff.”
Moreover, the lawmakers highlighted, “Imposing a $100,000 charge for brand spanking new H-1B visa petitions will exacerbate hospitals’ current staffing challenges and will push chronically underfunded hospitals to their monetary brink. If these hospitals can’t petition for brand spanking new H-1B visas to handle their staffing wants with out additionally having to pay this charge, it’s going to additional harm their monetary viability. Critically wanted open positions will merely go unfilled, leaving rural and high-poverty city areas with out enough entry to Care. We strongly urge you to exempt the healthcare sector from this burdensome charge.”
“The AAMC is aware of that proscribing entry to H1-B visas will worsen the nation’s current doctor scarcity, put strains on the healthcare workforce and finally jeopardize affected person entry to care, and we merely can’t let any of these issues occur,” stated Danielle Turnipseed, chief public coverage officer of the Affiliation of American Medical Schools, in an announcement.
On Monday, February 16, the Medical Group Administration Affiliation (MGMA) issued a press assertion praising the letter. “Medical group practices, notably in rural and underserved areas, depend on worldwide well being professionals—together with physicians, nurses, therapists, laboratory personnel, and different specialised clinicians—to satisfy important patient-care wants. Imposing a $100,000 charge on employers petitioning for H-1B staff additional strains healthcare workforce shortages and recruitment challenges, leaving important positions unfilled, putting extra stress on remaining employees, and contributing to burnout,” MGMA said. “MGMA joins these vital members of Congress in urging DHS to swiftly present a transparent exemption for healthcare staff to guard sufferers’ entry to well timed, excessive‑high quality care and to help medical practices already struggling to fill important staffing gaps.”
