MPHLWC Works to Exempt Healthcare Professionals from New $100,000 H1B Fee

• Ten members of the MPHLWC, including ASCP and the ASCP BOC, joined together to support a congressional initiative focused on strengthening the healthcare workforce. 

• The congressional effort sought to secure an exemption for healthcare professionals from the newly imposed $100,000 fee on H1B visas. 

ASCP, the ASCP Board of Certification, and several members of the Medical and Public Health Laboratory Workforce Coalition (MPHLWC) have joined a bipartisan congressional initiative seeking to exempt healthcare professionals from the recently imposed $100,000 fee on new H1B visas. The fee, added as part of broader immigration-related policy changes, applies to temporary work visas and has raised significant concerns across the healthcare sector. 

The effort is led by Representatives Mike Lawler (R-NY) and Yvette Clarke (D-NY), who are urging the U.S. Department of Homeland Security to carve out an exemption for healthcare workers whose roles are essential to maintaining patient care and addressing ongoing workforce shortages. As part of this initiative, MPHLWC members mobilized to help build broad support for a congressional letter to then-Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem, on February 11, 2026, see here. 

More than 40 healthcare organizations, including 10 MPHLWC members, endorsed the initiative, and the letter ultimately received signatures from 100 members of Congress, underscoring the widespread bipartisan recognition of the critical need to protect and strengthen the nation’s healthcare workforce. See Rep. Lawler and Clarke’s February 12, 2026, press release here.