GNYHA Advocates for Health Workforce Priorities at New York State Assembly Hearing

The New York State Assembly Committees on Health, Higher Education, and Labor held a hearing last week on COVID-19’s impact on the State’s health workforce and care delivery. Health care workers and governmental agency, industry, and labor union representatives testified. Senior Vice President Tim Johnson outlined GNYHA’s priorities for the State’s 2022 budget to address short- and long-term health workforce shortages at hospitals and nursing facilities. GNYHA’s priorities include funding to develop or expand nurse residency programs, for hospitals and nursing facilities to provide more clinical education opportunities to help nursing and other health professional schools expand enrollment, for organizations to implement programs for middle and high school students to enter the health workforce, and to establish a health workforce innovation center within the New York State Department of Health to test new models of care and evaluate innovations and flexibilities granted during the pandemic or in use in other states. GNYHA’s written testimony also emphasized the need for increased Medicaid funding to stabilize hospitals and nursing facilities and allow doctors, nurses, and other frontline workers continue to deliver high-quality care. A recording of the hearing may be found here.