DES MOINES, Iowa — Iowa State Representatives passed a bill that would cap the amount temporary health care employment agencies are allowed to charge for nursing services.
House File 2391 would set a maximum wage of 150% of the average nurse salary in the state, depending on what type of health care entity that a temporary nurse is working in. The bill passed by a vote of 80-17, getting a decent amount of bipartisan support.
“House File 2391 is a bill that comes to us as we think about our health care facilities and the staff and trying to find enough staff and providing care to some of our most vulnerable Iowans,” said State Representative Joel Fry (R) District 24.
Temporary workers provided essential care during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, when a lack of local staff forced health care facilities to seek outside help. But, years later, House Republicans and Democrats passed a bill that would stop temporary worker agencies from price gouging facilities like nursing homes.
“It’s a morale issue for health care workers that are in there, stuck in there, that are working for a rate and working alongside traveling nurses making three or four times what they’re making,” said State Representative Timi Brown-Powers (D) District 61, from Waterloo. “And so we need to kind of take those steps to make things better in the workplace for health care overall.”
Some in the minority party did not vote for the bill out of concern that capping the wages for temporary workers might drive business opportunities away from the state.
“And at 150%, it’s going to make, I think, difficult for some of these businesses to continue to stay in business in Iowa,” said State Representative John Forbes (D) District 44, Urbandale. “And especially being in a rural state, a lot of the nursing homes in the rural areas sometimes run into staffing shortages. And this could create some issues out in especially rural Iowa, where there is not going to be enough workforce.”
The bill also requires the State Department of Health and Human Services to establish a maximum allowable charge schedule annually. The bill still needs to get through the Iowa Senate before it is able to be signed into law.