Medical lobbies urge Trump administration to exempt health care from H-1B changes

Listen to the article
3 min

This audio is generated automatically. Please let us know if you have comments.

Diving brief:

• The country’s main medical groups call on Trump administration to exempt foreign health workers from higher H-1B visa demand fees announced earlier this month, warning that the policy will exacerbate a shortage of continuous labor and ultimately harm patients.
• Fifty-five The medical companies, including the American Medical Association, the American Academy of Family Physicians and the Medical Group Management Association, signed a letter to the Ministry of Internal Security calling for exemptions last week. The American Hospital Association followed his own letter on Monday.
• The AHA warned that the costs would have a huge financial impact for hospitals. “This constraint will be the most felt by our rural and poorly served communities, which are already faced with challenges in hiring and maintaining staff to serve their patients,” wrote the president and chief executive officer of AHA, Rick Pollack.

Diving insight:

On September 19, President Donald Trump published a proclamation imposing costs of $ 100,000 with each new H-1B visa petition, causing panic between suppliers on the impact of the change of talent pipeline in the health care industry.

As part of the program, the government allows employers to sponsor a fixed number of visas per year to fill the critical positions. It has generally been considered a win-win, allowing companies to innovate without overwhelming the labor market with foreign talents.

According to the AHA, nearly 17,000 H-1B visas went to those of health and medical professions, which represents 4.2% of the total of the petitions deposited. Half of the approved visas supported by bringing doctors and surgeons in the country.

Visas also help sponsor international medicine graduates, according to the AMA. International medicine graduates represent nearly 1 over 4 national and national doctor, said the AMA letter. Many providers train in poorly served or rural areas.

For example, in 2021, around 64% of doctors trained abroad practiced in areas with health care shortages or in medically served areas, depending on the letter.

THE The medical groups have said that the need for foreign talents in America will only grow as the population ages, Noting that the nation should have a shortage of 86,000 doctors by 2036.

“There is a growing need for a more important workforce of doctors that the United States cannot fill by itself, in part because the United States does not have enough people in the young generation to take care of our aging country. Consequently, H-1B doctors play an essential role in the filling of this void, especially in the United States areas with high-needed populations, “the AMA wrote and other medical groups.

The letters also evolved to dissuade the concepts that H-1B visas had jobs from the American candidates.

“Clinicians trained abroad do not move American workers. Instead, they play a critical role in ensuring the health of the communities that our hospitals serve, “wrote AHA.