Members of Congress want the White House to investigate nurse staffing agencies after receiving reports of price gouging. A bipartisan group of 195 Congress members wrote to the White House COVID-19 Response Team Coordinator Jeffrey Zient requesting an investigation into reports of alleged price gouging by nurse staffing agencies. The bipartisan group of lawmakers, led by Representatives Peter Welch (D-VT) and Morgan Griffith (R-VA), accused some nurse staffing agencies of increasing their prices to profit from the pandemic.  The members of Congress want the enlistment of federal agencies to determine if this conduct is the result of anticompetitive activity or if it violates consumer protection laws. “We urge you to ensure that this issue gets the attention from the federal government it merits to protect patients in dire need of life-saving health care treatment and prevent conduct that is exacerbating the shortage of nurses and straining the health care system,” the lawmakers state

A report shows that overall healthcare employment remains below pre-pandemic rates. However, ambulatory care employment rates have fully recovered. January 26, 2022 – In 2021, healthcare employment experienced no significant growth. However, ambulatory care employment saw an increase in jobs exceeding pre-pandemic rates, an analysis from Altarum revealed . Healthcare employment gained 63,000 jobs, a modest 0.4 percent rise, compared to employment rates in December 2020. Meanwhile, employment in the ambulatory care sector, such as provider offices, clinics, labs, and home health agencies, increased by 3.1 percent in 2021.  The report showed that employment decreased for the nursing and residential care sectors by 4.7 percent. Additionally, the hospital sector experienced a 0.6 percent drop in jobs.  Ambulatory care jobs rose by 242,000 jobs last year, while hospitals experienced a loss of 33,000 jobs and nursing and residential care jobs fell by 46,000.  Over three-fourths of jobs withi