SHM Supports the Reintroduction of the Healthcare Workforce Resilience Act
November 17, 2023
SHM's Policy Efforts
SHM supports legislation that affects hospital medicine and general healthcare, advocating for hospitalists and the patients they serve.
The Honorable Dick Durbin
United States Senate
711 Hart Senate Building
Washington, DC 20510
The Honorable Kevin Cramer
United States Senate
313 Hart Senate Office Building
Washington, DC 20515
The Honorable Brad Schneider
House of Representatives
Washington, DC 20515
The Honorable Don Bacon
House of Representatives
2104 Rayburn House Office Building
Washington, DC 20515
Dear Senators Durbin and Cramer and Representatives Schneider and Bacon,
The Society of Hospital Medicine (SHM), representing the nation’s more than 46,000 hospitalists, is pleased to support The Healthcare Workforce Resilience Act (H.R. 6205/S. 3211). This bipartisan legislation will recapture 40,000 unused employmentbased visas and utilize them to expedite processing for immigrant doctors and nurses. This visa recapture program will extend for a three year period, beginning with the date this legislation is enacted, and will help fill health care staffing shortages.
Hospitalists are front-line clinicians in America’s acute care hospitals and focus on the general medical care of hospitalized patients. For hospitalists, ongoing staffing shortages, which are a result of multiple compounding factors, including burnout, high turnover, and financial pressures, have severely impacted our ability to care for patients and are hurting the entire healthcare system. While holistically addressing staffing shortages will require a multipronged approach, bolstering our workforce with highly skilled immigrant clinicians will help alleviate staffing shortages in the immediate future.
We must utilize all available tools to expand the healthcare workforce. This legislation will ensure visas for medical workers are processed in a timely manner, alleviate some of the green card backlog for physicians and nurses, and increase the numbers of our available healthcare workforce. Importantly, this legislation will also protect families by allowing spouses and children to join healthcare workers in the United States.
As the United States continues to face significant healthcare staffing challenges, this legislation will help bolster our workforce with skilled, highly trained clinicians. Immigrant physicians and nurses provide exceptional medical care and will help ensure patients around the country have access to the healthcare they need. SHM is pleased to offer our support for the Healthcare Workforce Resilience Act and stands ready to work towards its passage.
Sincerely,
Kris Rehm, MD, SFHM
President, Society of Hospital Medicine