Rochester (N.Y.) Regional Health is responding to scrutiny from the U.S. Department of Labor’s inspector general over its hiring of foreign-trained resident physicians.
In a Sept. 27 post on X, Inspector General Anthony D’Esposito asked the system how many residency slots at Rochester General Hospital went to H-1B and J-1 visa holders, and whether American applicants “got a fair shot.” He tied the question to President Donald Trump’s Sept. 18 executive order on visa abuse. Mr. D’Esposito said that “if the system is being gamed,” his office will work with the White House fraud task force to expose it.
His post followed an unverified claim by an X account called Expose H1B Fraud that 80 of the 82 residents Rochester General hired are on H-1B or J-1 visas.
“We don’t comment on ongoing investigations, but we are taking the exploitation of American jobs very seriously,” Olivia Stone, senior media advisor for the U.S. Department of Labor, Office of Inspector General, said in a Sept. 29 statement to Becker’s
A spokesperson for Rochester Regional Health told Becker’s that the system has received no official communication from the Labor Department.
In a Sept. 29 statement, the system said it is proud to recruit and train qualified physicians who meet the standards of its accredited graduate medical education programs.
“Like health systems across the country, Rochester Regional Health is working to recruit and train enough physicians to meet the needs of our patients amid a national physician shortage. International physicians have long been an essential part of the U.S. healthcare workforce, particularly at community-based teaching hospitals like ours,” the spokesperson said. “At a time when communities across the country face physician shortages, these highly qualified physicians help ensure patients can continue to access the care they need.”
International medical graduates make up about 24.2% of active U.S. medical residents, according to the Association of American Medical Colleges. The National Resident Matching Program counts U.S. citizens who attend foreign medical schools as international medical graduates, so a physician’s medical school does not show their citizenship or visa status.
The inquiry comes amid increasing federal scrutiny of visas for international workers, including those in healthcare. In August, the Department of Homeland Security proposed a $103,265 H-1B petition fee, after a federal judge struck down President Donald Trump’s $100,000 fee in June. The American Medical Association and American Hospital Association have asked DHS to exempt clinicians from the new fee. On Sept. 14, a federal judge also blocked a DHS rule that would have capped J-1 and F visa holders at four years, a change teaching hospitals warned could disrupt about 16,000 international residents and fellows.
