GAO study on travel nurse agencies

The Comptroller General of the United States shall—(1)conduct a study on the effects of travel nurse agencies on the health care industry during the COVID–19 pandemic, which shall include consideration of—(A)the business practices and payment practices of such agencies, including any potential price gouging and taking of excessive profits; (B)the difference between how much such agencies charged health care institutions and how much they paid their contracted nurses;(C)the extent to which such agencies could provide more transparency regarding the payments received from health care institutions, and the payments made by the agencies to the nurses who are contracted by such agencies;(D)the specific ways in which rural areas of the United States were affected by the rise of travel nursing across the country, and subsequent workforce shortage disparities;(E)how States that imposed caps to travel nurse pay were affected by the market reaction to such caps; (F)how Federal funds, including the Provider Relief Fund and any assistance granted to a health care institution under the Robert T. Stafford Disaster Relief and Emergency Assistance Act (42 U.S.C. 5 121 et seq.), were used by health care institutions to pay such agencies throughout the workforce shortages exacerbated by the COVID–19 pandemic; (G)the extent to which travel nurse agency practices contribute to workforce shortages; and(H)the extent to which travel nurse agencies have been acquired by private equity firms and the impact of such acquisitions on the profits of the agencies; and(2)not later than 1 year after the date of enactment of this Act, submit a report to Congress on such study.