The new $100,000 fee for H-1B visas is expected to detract from the ability of providers in low-income and rural areas to serve their communities.
Providers – especially hospitals – in such areas typically operate on very low margins and always have trouble recruiting physicians and other highly skilled providers and often turn to international medical graduates in search of help. In fact, a 2021 study published by the National Institutes of Health reported that nearly two-thirds of international medical graduates practiced in areas designated as health professional shortage areas or medically underserved areas, with nearly half practicing in rural areas.
Now, hospitals in low-income and rural areas are protesting that they will not be able to afford to pay $100,000 for each H-1B visa. This comes, moreover, at a time when the U.S. already has a shortage of more than 13,000 physicians – a figure that is expected to climb to more than 85,000 for primary care physicians alone by 2037.
Learn more about the anticipated impact of the new $100,000 H-1B visa from the CNN report “‘There’s no way we’re going to pay $100,000’: Rural and underserved hospitals hit hard by hefty H-1B fees.”