Recent changes to state rules governing nurse agency staffing practices will make it easier for Illinois nursing homes to hire temporary and part-time nurses by addressing some concerns about agency practices, observers say.
The changes prohibit non-compete agreements between nurse staffing agencies and nurses or certified nursing assistants and impose additional reporting requirements. Implemented Monday, the act is effective for noncompete agreements executed on or after July 1, 2022.
The implications for providers are significant, said Matt Hartman, executive director of the Illinois Health Care Association and Illinois Center for Assisted Living, chief negotiators on the legislation.
“Greater accountability for agencies that took gross advantage of the staffing shortage during the pandemic,” Hartman said. “It also allows us some flexibilities in offering nurses options in where and how they may choose to work.
“There were additional changes we would have liked to see, including caps on agency profits and the fees agencies charge above and beyond what they pay their nurses, which we saw increase astronomically,” he added.
Non-compete clauses, conversion fees and the barriers they imposed discouraged nurses from pursuing in-house employment, Hartman explained.
The amendments to the Nurse Agency Licensing Act will protect temporary nurses and nurse aides’ right to change jobs or get hired directly by a healthcare facility, added Illinois Department of Labor Acting Director Jane Flanagan.
“It will also increase stability and transparency in the healthcare industry in the state. As the pandemic illustrated time and time again, healthcare workers and the healthcare industry are critical to the well-being of the people of Illinois,” noted a summary prepared by the law firm Ogletree, Deakins, Nash, Smoak & Stewart, P.C
Agencies must list wages to be paid to nurses and CNAs in contracts, and demonstrate that they pay those rates in full, with all new contracts provided to the state labor department within five days. Violations to the new IDOL rules could include civil penalties of $10,000 (up from $1,000) each.
The move by the General Assembly this week comes less than a year after skilled nursing leaders asked the federal government to address anti-competitive behaviors in the temporary staffing market.
Observers say revisions to the law are designed to shed light on agencies’ business and hiring practices.
Federally, the Travel Nursing Agency Transparency Study Act, would require the Government Accountability Office to study potential price gouging and “taking of excessive profits”; the difference between the rates contracted nurses were paid and how much facilities were charged; and to what extent federal funds, including Provider Relief dollars, were used by providers to pay agencies during pandemic-era workforce shortages.
The June bill was referred to committee for further study before the Senate’s summer break but currently has no co-sponsors, making odds of passage bleak for now.
