Why a cap on travel nurse salaries is a big mistake, particularly for patients

The American Hospital Association (AHA) and over 200 bipartisan, high ranking U.S. House and Senate members, including Adam Schiff, Tim Ryan, Rick Scott, Liz Cheney, and Jackie Speier — fearless fighter of women’s rights — are calling for an investigation into the high nursing staffing fees. They request the White House COVID-19 Response Team Coordinator to determine why nurse staffing fees have skyrocketed during the pandemic and protect consumers from anti-competitive and unfair agency staffing.

Everyone involved agrees that the COVID-19 crisis has placed unprecedented stresses on healthcare workers and accompanying burdens on hospital systems to maintain safe staffing levels to care for patient demands. But the AHA and this large group of lawmakers are bent on focusing on why nurse staffing agencies have collectively raised fees to hospitals as much as three times the pre-pandemic rate, with 40 percent going to the agency’s profits.