Florida is among a number of states facing skyrocketing costs for temporary contract nurses as the COVID-19 pandemic burns out longtime staff members and workforce shortages worsen.
As staffing agencies for travel nurses double and triple their fees to hospitals, the Florida Hospital Association is tracking complaints of price gouging in other states. California’s hospital association last month asked the state Department of Justice to conduct a probe on behalf of its 400 hospitals.
“We need your immediate support to ensure that high quality, affordable care remains available for all who will need it in the coming weeks and months,” the association’s Sept.15 letter states.
Florida’s hospital association declined to say whether price gouging is occurring or if a statewide investigation is warranted, but “we are closely watching what is going on in California and other states,” said Mary Mayhew, the group’s president and chief executive officer. “Across the state, we are hearing reports of prices two to three times earlier levels,” Mayhew added in an email.
Aya Healthcare Inc., which bills itself as the nation’s largest travel nurse agency, allegedly charged $160 or more an hour for temporary nurses, according to a lawsuit filed in March by Steward Health. The Texas-based hospital system operates 34 hospitals in the U.S. including eight in Florida.
Typically the rate was $75 an hour before the pandemic, according to the March 8 complaint in Massachusetts Superior Court.
In California, hospitals have little choice but to pay the current rates and fear a “public airing of concerns” could lead to unwillingness on the part of some agencies to work work with them, according to the California Hospital Association.
Florida recently overtook California as the state with the highest number of travel nurses applying for positions, followed by Arizona, Minnesota and Georgia, according to Vivian Health, a hiring marketplace firm that connects healthcare professionals to jobs but is not a staffing agency.
The national shortage of nurses that predated COVID-19 has only worsened as nurses leave the profession due to stress, burnout, and rising workloads.
– Liz Freeman, Florida Today
Also in the news:
►Los Angeles’ vaccine mandate for indoor areas of bars, lounges, nightclubs, breweries, wineries and distilleries went into effect Thursday night. The city earlier this week approved an even stricter measure that requires vaccination for public venues such as shopping centers, movie theaters, restaurants, sports arenas, museums and other locales. That will go into effect next month.
►Arkansas on Thursday became the 29th state to report at least 500,000 COVID-19 cases. The state has reported a total of 500,779 cases since the start of the pandemic.
►A Massachusetts man was sentenced to serve 56 months in prison after being implicated in the nation’s first case of COVID stimulus loan fraud.
►A Colorado health system is requiring “almost all” organ transplant patients to get vaccinated against COVID-19 before they receive their transplant.
📈Today’s numbers: The U.S. has recorded more than 44 million confirmed COVID-19 cases and more than 710,000 deaths, according to Johns Hopkins University data. Global totals: More than 236 million cases and 4.8 million deaths. More than 186 million Americans — 56% of the population — are fully vaccinated, according to the CDC.
📘 What we’re reading: At least 140,000 children across the U.S. have lost a primary or secondary caregiver to COVID-19 and children of color have taken the brunt of it, according to a study published Thursday in the journal Pediatrics. The study highlights the pandemic-driven childhood crisis and its disproportionate impact. Read more here.
Keep refreshing this page for the latest news. Want more? Sign up for USA TODAY’s Coronavirus Watch newsletter to receive updates directly to your inbox and join our Facebook group.
Investigation: Pandemic contributed to tragedy of troops’ drowning
The coronavirus pandemic that curtailed training in 2020 contributed to nine service members drowning off San Diego’s coast, according to a new military investigation into one of the Marine Corps’ deadliest training accidents in recent years.
Senior commanders leading up to the accident also were strapped with extra “nonstandard” missions, including sending Marines to the U.S.-Mexico border as part of the Trump administration’s tightening of border security and assisting with the Navy’s hospital ship, the USNS Mercy, that anchored off Los Angeles to relieve hospitals overwhelmed with coronavirus cases, according to investigation findings made public Wednesday.
The amphibious assault vehicle sank on July 30, 2020, off San Clemente Island, trapping troops inside it. A previous investigation found the deaths were preventable and blamed the tragedy on inadequate training, shabby maintenance of the 35-year-old amphibious assault vehicles and poor judgment by commanders.
The findings released Wednesday looked at the readiness of the troops before they participated in the exercise 70 miles off San Diego’s coast and noted that it should not take away from the earlier probe that found a slew of missteps and oversights that left the crew in the dark and using their cell phone lights to desperately try to find an unmarked escape hatch as they took on water. There were also no safety boats nearby to save them.
Home health workers may lose jobs as NY vaccine mandate goes into effect
Thousands of home health workers could lose their jobs under New York’s latest COVID-19 vaccine mandate requiring they get shots by Friday, home care industry leaders said.
The mandate covers about 270,000 workers in home health care services, and at least 11,900 of those employees said they would rather quit or be fired than comply with the vaccination requirement, according to a survey conducted last month by the Home Care Association of New York State.
In recent weeks, some home health providers have reported increases in worker vaccinations, as the deadline to get the first dose loomed, said Al Cardillo, president and CEO of the association.
“But at the same time they’re reporting the (vaccination) gaps are still very significant,” he said, adding home health providers are calling on Gov. Kathy Hochul’s administration to delay enforcement of the mandate to allow time to convince more workers to get shots and fill staffing gaps, if necessary.
“For the past year, we were celebrating them as heroes. Now they’re to be fired, however, the biggest implication is: What does that mean for the service for the patients?” Cardillo said, adding the current home health worker vaccination rate remains unclear.
– David Robinson, New York State Team
Contributing: Jeanine Santucci and Celina Tebor; Associated Press
