The AAMC endorsed a Feb. 11 letter (PDF) led by Reps. Michael Lawler (R-N.Y.) and Yvette Clarke (D-N.Y.) to the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Kristi Noem, urging the department to provide an exemption for the hospital and health care sector from the $100,000 fee for filing new H-1B visa petitions. The letter was sent in response to the September 2025 presidential proclamation, “Restriction on Entry of Certain Nonimmigrant Workers,” which imposed a $100,000 H-1B visa filing fee on all American employers [refer to Washington Highlights, Sept. 26, 2025]. The bipartisan, bicameral letter to Noem was signed by 100 members of Congress and endorsed by 40 organizations.
The letter highlights current and future health professional workforce shortages and the detrimental impact the $100,000 filing fee poses on access to care, including in rural and underserved communities, noting that these gaps in care cannot be filled by the domestic workforce alone. “According to the Health Resources and Services Administration, nearly 87 million Americans live in areas Federally designated as lacking enough medical professionals to address the community’s health care needs. Physician demand could exceed supply by up to 86,000 in the next decade and clinical laboratory science programs are educating less than half the number of clinical laboratory professionals needed,” the authors wrote. The letter further details the impact of the fee on hospitals’ existing staffing challenges and financial viability.
AAMC Chief Public Policy Officer Danielle Turnipseed, JD, MHSA, MPP, was quoted in Clarke’s accompanying press release announcing the letter, “We know the positive impact that H-1 visa holders have in health care – they help fill in the gap in our country’s health care delivery system, providing care where it is needed most and in the face of acute workforce shortages. The AAMC knows that restricting access to H1-B visas will worsen the nation’s existing physician shortage, put strains on the health care workforce and ultimately jeopardize patient access to care, and we simply can’t let any of those things happen.”
The AAMC also separately urged Noem in a Dec. 2025 letter (PDF) to provide H-1B professionals in academic medicine and the health care sector with an exception from the $100,000 fee, based on industry [refer to Washington Highlights, Jan. 9].