WASHINGTON, D.C. – The American Hospital Association (AHA) and the American Health Care Association and National Center for Assisted Living (AHCA/NCAL), the largest associations representing America’s hospitals and nursing homes, respectively, sent a joint letter today to Jeffrey Zients, the White House’s COVID-19 Response Team Coordinator, requesting assistance with reports of anticompetitive practices by nurse and other direct care staffing agencies.
In the letter, the two organizations describe how the COVID-19 pandemic has driven a critical workforce shortage throughout the health care system—a crisis that staffing agencies have been exploiting by charging uniformly high prices beyond reasonably competitive levels. Hospitals and nursing homes have no choice but to pay these exorbitant rates—sometimes two or three times higher than pre-pandemic rates—in order to ensure patients receive care.
AHA and AHCA/NCAL request that the White House devote the federal government’s attention to these practices urgently. Both organizations are awaiting a response from the Federal Trade Commission after writing to the agency to investigate the matter last year.
Read the full letter
here.
ABOUT THE AMERICAN HOSPITAL ASSOCIATION
The American Hospital Association (AHA) is a not-for-profit association of health care provider organizations and individuals that are committed to the health improvement of their communities. The AHA advocates on behalf of our nearly 5,000 member hospitals, health systems and other health care organizations, our clinician partners – including more than 270,000 affiliated physicians, 2 million nurses and other caregivers – and the 43,000 health care leaders who belong to our professional membership groups. Founded in 1898, the AHA provides insight and education for health care leaders and is a source of information on health care issues and trends. For more information, visit the AHA website at
www.aha.org.
ABOUT AHCA/NCAL
The American Health Care Association and National Center for Assisted Living (AHCA/NCAL) represents more than 14,000 non-profit and proprietary skilled nursing centers, assisted living communities, sub-acute centers, and homes for individuals with intellectual and development disabilities. By delivering solutions for quality care, AHCA/NCAL aims to improve the lives of the millions of frail, elderly and individuals with disabilities who receive long term or post-acute care in our member facilities each day. For more information, please visit
www.ahcancal.org.