Physicians have been quick to come to the defense of doctors who receive H-1B visas, which allows foreign professionals to work within the United States. Now, with President Trump's administration mulling more policy changes to the system, a last week sheds some light on the potential healthcare impact.
While just over 1% of all physicians nationally have such visas, there's wide variation state to state. As many as one out of every 25 physicians in some states are working under the H-1B program.
Overall, just under 10,500 applications were certified for physicians by 2,156 sponsoring employers last year. New York, Michigan, and Illinois led the way in the raw number of positions. North Dakota had the highest approved percentage of H1-B physicians, at 4.68%. Rhode Island, Michigan, Delaware, and Arkansas followed.
The 2016 data came from the federal , which was compared to active patient care physician data from the Association of American Medical Colleges 2015 State Physician Workforce Data Book.
Employers sponsoring the largest number of applicants were:
- William Beaumont Hospital in Michigan, with 470
- Bronx-Lebanon Hospital Center in New York, 213
- Cleveland Clinic Foundation in Ohio, 180
- Presence Saint Francis Hospital and Presence Saint Joseph Hospital, both in Illinois, had 150 apiece.
Note that many foreign-born physicians have obtained legal residency through other programs and are not included in these H-1B data.