Health Leaders Offer Recommendations to Senate Panel on Addressing Workforce Shortages, Improving Diversity

In Conjunction with Senate HELP Roundtable at Morehouse School of Medicine, HLC Offers Policy Agenda

WASHINGTON – With the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee (HELP) having a roundtable discussion today on workforce shortages and the need for greater diversity in the healthcare labor force at Morehouse School of Medicine in Atlanta, the Healthcare Leadership Council (HLC) has offered committee members a broad list of recommendations to strengthen the healthcare workforce.

HLC is an alliance of leading healthcare companies and organizations representing all health sectors and the recommendations it has offered to fortify and diversity the healthcare workforce include:

• Passage of the “Specialty Physicians Advancing Rural Care Act,” to address the nationwide physician shortage in rural areas, which are historically medically underserved.

• Federal support for the National Health Service Corp, which provides scholarships and loan repayment funds for medical providers who agree to practice in medically underserved areas, and Teaching Health Centers, which train medical residents to work as primary care physicians in those areas.

• Re-introduction and passage of last Congress’s “Credit for Caring Act,” which would create a nonrefundable federal tax credit for eligible working family caregivers to help address the financial challenges of caregiving, recognizing that family caregivers provide a collective 36 billion hours in healthcare services.

• Enactment of legislation to ensure that every state has an adequately-funded nursing workforce center to develop and publish data and best practices on nursing supply, demand, and education.

• Immigration policies that enable the entry of qualified medical professionals into the United States and that allow the recruitment of nurses and other workers critical to the healthcare industry.

• Licensure flexibility for healthcare professionals that enables greater workforce mobility and the ability to practice across state lines.

• Increased support for graduate medical education and expanded residency slots through passage of legislation like the “Resident Physician Shortage Reduction Act.”

• Passage of the “Equitable Community Access to Pharmacist Services Act” to make permanent Medicare coverage of pharmacist-administered diagnostic tests that was in place during any future public health emergencies.

• Explore value-based care as a long-term way to better align the healthcare workforce and address shortages. The shift to value-based care will enable consistent and efficient data collection, and communication among healthcare providers which will allow for better utilization of the healthcare workforce.

HLC will be convening multiple healthcare companies and organizations in May for a roundtable to begin building consensus on solutions to strengthen the healthcare workforce.

For Immediate Release: May 12, 2023
Contact: Kelly Fernandez, (202) 449-3452