As hospitals pay nurses top dollar to compete with staffing agencies, some hospitals are using COVID-19 relief funds to make up the difference between wages for full-time staff and travel staff, The Wall Street Journal reported Feb. 8.
Some lawmakers and trade groups say that the relief funds from the Federal Emergency Management Agency are driving up pressure on wages, according to the Journal. FEMA said Hawaii would receive $95 million for travel healthcare workers, and Texas has used billions of relief funds to cover costs from travel nurses.
A group of healthcare organizations — including the American Hospital Association — wrote a letter Feb. 8 to Sen. Charles Schumer, Sen. Mitch McConnell, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Rep. Kevin McCarthy, asking for federal relief. Part of the reason the organizations are requesting additional aid is because of staffing challenges, the letter stated.
"Unfortunately, some travel nurse staffing agencies seem to be exploiting these shortages by inflating prices beyond reasonably competitive levels — two or three or more times pre-pandemic rates — and reportedly retaining high profit margins for themselves," the letter stated.
Nearly 200 House members wrote a letter in January to the White House requesting an investigation of price gouging by staffing agencies, as did AHA and the American Health Care Association.
Staffing agencies say the increase in costs are more to do with supply and demand, the Journal reported.
"It's kind of like saying real-estate agents set the price. The buyers and sellers participating in the market do," Alan Braynin, president and chief executive officer of Aya Healthcare, told the Journal.