AHA and AHCA/NCAL Send Letter to White House On Exploitation of Staffing Agencies
On Jan. 27, the American Hospital Association (AHA) and the American Health Care Association/National Center for Assisted Living (AHCA/NCAL) sent a letter to Jeffrey Zients, the White House's COVID-19 response team coordinator, explaining the organizations’ concerns that nurse and other direct care staffing agencies have been exploiting the shortage of healthcare personnel by charging high prices and urge the investigation of these agencies.
The release states that “In order to respond to the variants and the surges that follow, many hospitals and LTC [long-term care] facilities have been forced to rely on staffing agencies to fill vacancies to provide needed care. Unfortunately, it appears many of these agencies are engaged in anticompetitive practices that are detrimental to hospitals’ and LTC facilities’ ability to care for their patients. This is especially harmful as the health care workforce continues to experience shortages related to the pandemic while demand for services has increased.”
Further, “Hospitals and LTC facilities have shared countless examples of how agencies are exploiting their desperate situation for personnel by inflating prices beyond reasonably competitive levels – two or three times pre-pandemic rates – and retaining up to 40% or more of those amounts for themselves. Our organizations have no choice but to pay these exorbitant rates. Those rates are not only unsustainable, but they deprive hospitals and LTC facilities of the ability to fund other priorities without significant federal, state and local government assistance.”
The letter adds that the AHA and AHCA/NCAL urged the Federal Trade Commission to look into this issue as a violation of antitrust or consumer protection laws but haven’t received a response.
“We ask that you help ensure this matter gets the attention it merits from the federal government. Preventing these agencies from exploiting our organizations’ desperate need for health care personnel should help mitigate one of the enormous pressures on our hospitals, health systems, and LTC facilities and enable them to focus on caring for the patients who rely so heavily upon them as the pandemic continues,” the release concludes.
