News Briefs
Healthcare Workforce Bounces Back, But Recovery Uneven
The U.S. healthcare workforce has bounced back from the massive job losses of early 2020, with employment now matching pre-pandemic projections, according to new research from the University of Michigan. The recovery, however, is uneven with some healthcare settings thriving while others continue to struggle with severe staffing shortages.
(Source: News-Medical, 2025-06-15)
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Pause on J-1 Visas Stops Foreign Doctors from U.S. Residencies
Every summer thousands of foreign-born doctors that have graduated from international medical schools come to the U.S. for residency programs. The ban on individuals from Afghanistan, Burma, Chad, the Republic of the Congo, Equatorial Guinea, Eritrea, Haiti, Iran, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, and Yemen, with partial restrictions on entry for people from Burundi, Cuba, Laos, Sierra Leone, Togo, Turkmenistan, and Venezuela, adds a new barrier for incoming medical residents on top of a pause on the scheduling of new appointments for J-1 visas, which most doctor-trainees use to come to the United States.
(Source: Forbes, 2025-06-13)
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Immigration Crackdown Threatens Home Health Workforce
President Donald Trump's immigration crackdown threatens to shrink the workforce for one of America's fastest growing jobs: home health and personal care aides. Demand for such care is expected to swell as the U.S. population ages, and the industry has increasingly relied on immigrants to fill home health positions. Foreign-born people comprise roughly one in five U.S. workers, yet they account for more than 40 percent of home health aides and nearly 30 percent of personal care employment, according to U.S. government data.
(Source: The Economic Times, 2025-06-16)
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Lawmakers Introduce Resident Physician Shortage Reduction Act
Reps. Terri Sewell (D-Alabama) and Brian Fitzpatrick (R-Pennsylvania) have introduced bipartisan legislation that aims to counter the ever-looming U.S. physician shortage by expanding Medicare-funded medical residency positions and increasing support for rural training programs. The Resident Physician Shortage Reduction Act of 2025 would add 14,000 Medicare-supported graduate medical education slots over a seven-year period, with the first round of positions becoming available in fiscal year 2026.
(Source: Medical Economics, 2025-06-12)
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Hospitals Urge Lawmakers to Address Violence Through Legislation
As hospitals continue to see high levels of violence against their employees, they are pressing lawmakers to pass legislation that would give greater protections for healthcare workers. Members of Congress have introduced legislation called the Save Healthcare Workers Act that would make it a federal crime to attack employees of hospitals and healthcare organizations. But despite solid support, lawmakers have never managed to pass such legislation.
(Source: Chief Healthcare Executive, 2025-06-12)
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Lawmakers Introduce End Prescription Drug Ads Now Act
Direct-to-consumer advertising for pharmaceuticals would be banned under new legislation introduced in the Senate. Patients would get far fewer messages to "ask your doctor" under the End Prescription Drug Ads Now Act, and it would ban prescription drug advertising on television, radio, print, digital platforms, and social media, said an announcement from sponsor Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vermont), ranking member of the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions.
(Source: Medical Economics, 2025-06-12)
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PBM Lobby Files Lawsuit Against Arkansas Over Pharmacy Ownership
The main lobby representing pharmacy benefit managers is suing Arkansas in a bid to stop the state's law preventing the drug middlemen from owning pharmacies. The Pharmaceutical Care Management Association's lawsuit filed in a federal court argues that Arkansas' law -- the first of its kind -- is unconstitutional and would result in pharmacies closing and medications becoming more difficult for Arkansans to access.
(Source: Healthcare Dive, 2025-06-10)
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Medical Debt Companies Pitch Services to Rural Hospitals
Medical debt financing and "patient access" companies are pitching their services to struggling rural hospitals nervous about keeping the doors open, as congressional Republicans consider healthcare cuts that could leave 16 million Americans without insurance. These companies, who act as middlemen between hospitals and patients, told the Guardian they could be a solution for cash-poor hospitals seeking to get paid by "subprime patients" -- especially the low-income, uninsured, and unbanked.
(Source: The Guardian, 2025-06-12)
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Partnership Aims to Develop Guidance for Healthcare AI Tools
The Joint Commission announced that it's working with the Coalition for Health AI on a new collaboration to develop a set of healthcare AI best practices and promote their adoption at hospitals and health systems nationwide. TJC, which sets healthcare standards and accredits more than 23,000 healthcare organizations across the U.S., says it will work with CHAI -- a nonprofit founded by an array of providers and technology developers to spur standards for responsible AI -- to co-develop new tools and playbooks toward those goals.
(Source: Healthcare IT News, 2025-06-12)
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AMA Adopts Policy Calling for AI Tools to Explain Their Answers
The American Medical Association has adopted a new policy that calls for clinical AI tools that can explain their answers. It also wants the AI purveyors to provide safety and efficacy data.
(Source: Politico, 2025-06-12)
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