Federal Trade Commission must protect short-staffed providers from price gouging: AHCA

October 22, 2021

The nation’s largest nursing home association this week added its voice to calls for federal intervention in alleged price gouging by direct care staffing agencies amid labor shortages exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic.

“Our providers have little choice but to pay the exorbitant prices, and hope that the agency does not poach their staff once in the building,” Mark Parkinson, president and CEO of the American Health Care Association, wrote in a letter Tuesday to the Federal Trade Commission. “This price gouging is simply not sustainable for our providers and the current reimbursement system structure.”

Parkinson’s letter, calling inflated rates “supercompetitive,” follows on the heels of a similarly worded letter from LeadingAge on Oct. 8.

Read more from McKnight’s here.