The Health Resources and Services Administration projects significant health workforce shortages across allied health, behavioral health, long-term care, nursing, oral health, and medicine. In response, at least 49 states and Puerto Rico enacted more than 730 bills this year addressing the health workforce shortage, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures (NCSL) tracking database.
State legislatures are pursuing three primary strategies: navigating federalism in health workforce policy, ensuring access to care at health facilities, and retaining the health workforce. The Cecil G. Sheps Center for Health Services Research identified multiple policy levers available to states throughout a health professional’s career lifecycle, from encouraging new entrants to leveraging foreign-trained health professionals to enhancing workplace safety. Several states bolstered graduate medical education programs through Medicaid payments (Iowa and New Hampshire) and state appropriations (Florida and Minnesota), while some states created new oversight mechanisms to ensure investments result in physicians practicing in rural and underserved areas. States have increasingly addressed international medical graduate barriers through provisional licensure and practice modifications, such as Hawaii, Oklahoma, and Washington.
Workforce Retention and Support
Health workforce retention requires strategies beyond recruitment. Research suggests financial incentives such as student loan repayment and forgiveness have positive impacts. States including Alabama, Georgia, Minnesota, and North Dakota enacted legislation on loan repayment, tax incentives, and scholarships. A 2023 study by Columbia Mailman School of Public Health found health care workers are at increased suicide risk compared with other workers. Several states—Alabama, Connecticut, and Texas—established or ensured confidentiality of peer support networks for first responders, while Arizona, Indiana, and Rhode Island limited regulatory boards’ ability to disqualify applicants based on previous mental health assistance or treatment. Hawaii established the State of Well-Being Project to increase mental health training among health professionals.
Addressing administrative burden represents another retention strategy. New Mexico directed its nursing board to create rules on artificial intelligence use in nursing, while Virginia required hospitals and certain long-term care facilities to implement policies on patients’ intelligent personal assistants using natural language processing and artificial intelligence.
This article is an AI-assisted summary. All facts and figures are drawn from the original report: https://www.ncsl.org/resources/details/the-latest-trends-in-health-workforce-legislation