AHA, nursing home and long-term care group urge White House to follow up on staffing agency pricing concerns

Many staffing agencies have been exploiting the severe shortage of health care personnel during the COVID-19 pandemic by charging uniformly high prices in a manner that suggests widespread coordination and abuse of market position, the AHA and American Health Care Association/National Center for Assisted Living today told White House COVID-19 Response Team Coordinator Jeffrey Zients.

“The AHA and AHCA/NCAL have each urged the Federal Trade Commission to investigate this conduct as a violation of our antitrust or consumer protection laws but we have not yet received any response,” the letter notes. “We ask that you help ensure this matter gets the attention it merits from the federal government.”

Earlier this week, nearly 200 House members also urged the White House to investigate reports that nurse staffing agencies are taking advantage of the COVID-19 pandemic to increase their profits at the expense of patients and the hospitals that treat them.