Hospitals, Foreign Health-Care Workers Press Congress for Action

The Covid-19 pandemic has fueled unprecedented demand for skilled health-care professionals—and the demand will only continue after the U.S. emerges from the pandemic.

Without training thousands of new American-born doctors and nurses, the clearest way to fill gaps in the health-care workforce is hiring talent from abroad, experts say.

Hospital groups have lobbied Congress for the past 18 months to address a shortage of nurses and physicians by offering green cards to tens of thousands of foreign health-care workers, among a number of proposed legislative options. While that legislation hasn’t advanced, industry groups and immigration advocates are eyeing a major ...