Some states considering caps on travel nurse pay

Editor's Note

With the demand for travel nurses rising significantly during the COVID-19 pandemic, some states are proposing measures to control what staffing agencies can charge healthcare facilities that use the temporary staff, the March 17 Kaiser Health News reports.

Among 11 states proposing regulations:

• Missouri is calling for felony charges against agencies that substantially raise their prices during an emergency.
• A New York bill includes a cap on the amount agencies can charge facilities.
• A Texas measure would allow civil penalties against staffing agencies.

Some states, including Massachusetts and Minnesota, already had rate caps for temporary nurses before the pandemic, but raised and even waived their caps.

Last year, Missouri proposed rate caps that were met with stiff resistance from nurses who called it government overreach and argued that the government would never attempt to dictate what a lawyer, electrician, or plumber could make.