SHM Signs On to Letter to Representatives Suozzi and Luttrell on Healthcare Immigration Priorities

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The Honorable Tom Suozzi
United States House of Representatives 
1117 Longworth HOB
Washington, DC 20515

The Honorable Morgan Luttrell
United States House of Representatives 
1320 Longworth HOB
Washington, DC 20515

Dear Representatives Suozzi and Luttrell: 

The undersigned organizations appreciate your work this year convening a working group to develop Bipartisan Common Sense Solutions for Immigration and Border Security. As part of your framework, you included the bipartisan, bicameral Healthcare Workforce Resilience Act. With the United States facing an urgent health care workforce shortage,  this legislation would initiate a one-time recapture of up to 40,000 unused employment- based visas—25,000 for nurses and 15,000 for physicians—so they can strengthen and provide stability to the U.S. health care system.

The negative impact of this impending shortage, coupled with an aging population, will be particularly acute on underserved communities and rural areas. This bipartisan proposal will help confront this crisis immediately as Congress explores other long-term solutions to ensure a sufficient supply of well-trained health care workers. 

We are also writing to strongly support the inclusion of the bipartisan, bicameral Conrad State 30 and Physician Access Reauthorization Act (H.R. 4942/S. 665). The Conrad 30 program helps recruit highly skilled, highly trained international medical graduate (IMG) physicians to rural and underserved areas that face persistent health workforce shortages. A key part of the success is its flexible design that allows each state to customize the 30- waiver allocation to address its unique needs. 

For three decades, the Conrad 30 program has helped Americans in rural and underserved areas receive medical care from more than 20,000 IMG physicians. Strengthening and providing a three-year reauthorization of this program will make it easier for employers to recruit these physicians upon completion of their U.S. residency training and clarify the incentives for IMGs who are critical to addressing workforce shortages across the country.

Thank you for recognizing the integral role immigrant health care workers play in the U.S. health care system. We hope you will include the Conrad State 30 and Physician Access Reauthorization Act in your framework and are ready to work with you to finalize formulation of this important legislation. If you have any questions, please feel free to contact Eli Greenspan with Physicians for American Healthcare Access (PAHA) at egreenspan@foleyhoag.com or Chris Sherin with the American Medical Association at christopher.sherin@ama-assn.org.
 

Sincerely,

Alliance for Headache Disorders Advocacy
ALS Association
Ambulatory Surgery Center Association
American Academy of Family Physicians
American Academy of Neurology
American Association of International Healthcare Recruitment
American Association of Neuromuscular & Electrodiagnostic Medicine American Brain Coalition
American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists
American College of Physicians
American College of Radiology
American Gastroenterological Association
American Headache Society
American Medical Association
American Psychiatric Association
American Society of Neuroradiology
Anxiety and Depression Association of America
Association for Advancing Physician and Provider Recruitment
Association of University Professors of Neurology
College of American Pathologists
Economic Innovation Group
Hydrocephalus Association
International Bipolar Foundation
International Medical Graduate Taskforce
M-CM Network
Miles for Migraine
MLD Foundation
National Ataxia Foundation
North American Neuro-Ophthalmology Society (NANOS)
Physicians for American Healthcare Access (PAHA)
Society of Hospital Medicine
SynGAP Research Fund, DBA curesyngap1
The Society of Thoracic Surgeons