Nurse and health care professional staffing shortages during the COVID-19 pandemic resulted in a significant increase in the use of temporary health care professional staffing. Lawmakers and health care providers have urged the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) and the White House COVID-19 Response Team to open investigations into allegations of price gouging and potential anti-competitive activity by nurse staffing agencies.

Additionally, the House and Senate introduced companion bills titled the “Travel Nursing Agency Transparency Study Act,” which would require the Government Accountability Office (GAO) to conduct a study and issue a report to Congress on the business and payment practices of nurse staffing agencies and the impact of hiring travel nurses across the health care field during the COVID-19 pandemic. The study would investigate the following:

• the difference between how much nurse staffing agencies charged health care institutions and how much they paid their contracted nurses,
• the extent to which agencies could provide more transparency regarding these payments,
• how federal funds were used to pay such agencies during COVID-19 related workforce shortages, and
• the effect of market reaction in states that imposed caps to travel nurse pay.

The increase in the use of travel nurses has also caused state lawmakers to prioritize regulation of health care staffing agencies. States generally define health care staffing agencies to include any entity who contracts with...

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