SHM Sends a Letter to Senate Majority Leader Urging Inclusion of Immigration Reform in COVID Package
July 27, 2020
SHM's Policy Efforts
SHM supports legislation that affects hospital medicine and general healthcare, advocating for hospitalists and the patients they serve.
The Honorable Mitch McConnell
Majority Leader
United States Senate
S-230 US Capitol
Washington D.C. 20510
Dear Majority Leader McConnell:
The Society of Hospital Medicine (SHM), representing the nation’s hospitalists, strongly supports inclusion of the Healthcare Workforce Resilience Act in the upcoming coronavirus relief package. Supported by both the Kentucky Hospital Association and Kentucky Medical Association, the bipartisan Healthcare Workforce Resilience Act (S. 3599) will recapture 40,000 unused employment-based visas and using them to expedite processing for immigrant doctors and nurses. This will help fill health care staffing shortages arising from the COVID-19 pandemic and ensure patients across the country have access to high-quality medical care.
Hospitalists are front-line clinicians in America’s acute care hospitals and focus on the general medical care of hospitalized patients. As a result, our members are on the frontlines of the COVID-19 pandemic caring for patients each day. Numerous hospitalists are highly trained immigrant physicians, many of whom are prevented from going where their expertise is needed most because of green card and visa backlogs.
As the United States continues to face unprecedented challenges in facing COVID-19, we must utilize all tools necessary to expand the healthcare provider workforce and this legislation will help alleviate many of the barriers hospitalists face in fully engaging the fight against COVID-19. SHM supports and appreciates your consideration of the Healthcare Workforce Resilience Act in the upcoming Senate Coronavirus relief package.
Sincerely,
Danielle Scheurer, MD, MSCR, SFHM
President
Society of Hospital Medicine