On September 19, 2025, an executive order increased the fee for new H-1B petitions from approximately $3500 to $100,000 per applicant. How is this policy likely to impact the healthcare workforce in the US?
A paper by Liu et al. (2025) used Department of Labor data on certified labor condition applications (LCAs) supporting H-1B visas to answer the question.
First, what share of H-1B providers is sponsored?
In FY 2024, H-1B-sponsored HCPs [health care professionals] Comprised 0.97% of physicians (11 080 out of 1 138 056), 0.02% of APPs (122 out of 641 605), 0.40% of dentists (1004 out of 251 551), and 0.07% of OHCWs (132 out of 181 495).
Second, poor and rural areas are disproportionately dependent on H-1B workers.
Across 3240 counties, those with the highest poverty levels had significantly higher percentages of H-1B-sponsored physicians than those with the lowest (2.0% vs. 0.54%; difference, 1.3%; 95% CI, 1.1%-1.5%); P <.001)…
The percentage of H-1B-sponsored physicians was also higher in rural counties than in urban counties (1.6% vs. 0.95%; difference, 0.48%; 95% CI, 0.29%-0.66%; P<.001).
The authors also noted that providers on H-1B visas are more likely to cover high-need specialty areas such as primary care and psychiatry.
You can read the full paper here and a MarketStory on this topic here.
