In March, the ACR responded to a Senate Health, Education, Pension & Labor Committee (HELP) request for information (RFI) focusing on “the causes of our current healthcare workforce shortages and potential legislative solutions.” The ACR’s response focused on strategies to increase the number of individuals in the physician and care team pipeline, as well as methods to support current healthcare providers.
The HELP Committee’s Chair Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) and Ranking Member Bill Cassidy (R-La.) have made bipartisan solutions to address healthcare workforce shortages a priority for the committee in the first part of this Congress. The committee intends to use the information provided by the ACR and other stakeholders as it develops bipartisan workforce legislation. Its leaders have already highlighted a number of possible approaches that are in line with some of the ACR’s recommendations, including reducing administrative tasks and otherwise addressing burnout, boosting training funding and offering more healthcare worker visas.
We anticipate legislation being introduced this year, and workforce issues will be a focus of the ACR’s upcoming Advocacy Leadership Conference and Capitol Hill fly-in on May 10–11.
