International Recruiting: Agencies Try to Make Transition Seamless for Labs

Appearing Clinical Laboratory News Online Extra by Bill Malone
http://www.aacc.org/publications/cln/pages/default.aspx

Hiring medical technologists and medical technicians from overseas is nothing new to labs in the U.S., but as the staffing shortage becomes acute, more labs may want to familiarize themselves with the process if they haven’t already.

Although at first glance hiring internationally can seem like a daunting task, recruiting firms that specialize in this area say that their services can make these transactions both affordable and painless. According to Andrew Lingo, marketing director of Passport USA, a division of the Cincinnati, Ohio-based healthcare staffing firm Health Carousel, LLC, hiring overseas can be an economical choice. “It’s an alternative solution to labs that are not able to find high quality lab scientists at a reasonable cost, especially for hard-to-fill areas like night positions. We think it can save about $10 or more per hour compared to traditional domestic contract staffing,” he said. “We’re experts at this, so we can deal with the immigration quagmire instead of the client.” Currently, the company recruits candidates through its wholly-owned offices in the Philippines.

Video and telephone interviews with international candidates can assuage many of the common concerns recruiting labs might have about hiring someone from overseas, such as their experience with state-of-the-art instrumentation or English language proficiency, Lingo emphasized. “Each of our clients interviews the candidates, and they’re not obligated to take anyone. The clients can ask questions about any concern they may have, just like any other interview—they’ll screen for personality fit, ability, motivation, experience, all of those things.”

All of Passport USA’s candidates have been educated in English and must pass a Test of English as a Foreign Language (TOEFL) exam that includes both written and oral components. “If a client is concerned about language, they can gain comfort during the interview and from their TOEFL scores, but it’s not going to be exactly the same as a domestic candidate of course,” Lingo said. When it comes to professional certifications or state licensure, these matters are taken care of in advance as well, before the candidate even begins the immigration process. Passport USA even makes sure they have an international driver’s license and access to a car upon arrival. “We invest a lot into our candidates to make their transition as smooth as possible, including funding their airfare, providing a stipend for living expenses, making sure that they have satisfactory housing, have a social security number, everything to get them started in the U.S. We don’t just leave them to figure things out on their own and we know that many of our clients don’t have the bandwidth to handle international arrivals,” he said.

Passport USA affords two basic options for hiring, directly or on a contract or “temp-to-perm” basis, with fees to the agency covering all costs, including immigration costs. “As a licensed agency of the Philippines Overseas Employment Administration (POEA), we’re not allowed to collect fees from candidates for our services: quite the opposite, with a quality candidate, if they don’t have money for a TOEFL or ASCP exam, for example, we’ll assist with funding exam costs after assessing the candidate,” Lingo said. In a direct hire, the fee is based on a negotiated percentage of first year salary and bonuses plus immigration costs ranging from $3,500 to $5,000 dollars. In a temp-to-perm hire, the immigration expenses are built into the hourly rate that the agency charges for the medical technologists services.

How quickly an international employee can immigrate and begin work depends on the time of year, due to the way the U.S. government processes visas. In the fall, for a non-licensure state, it takes about 8-12 weeks upon selection before the candidate arrives. If selecting a candidate in the spring, this timeframe can expand to up to 6 months. Employers also need to add about a month of extra time if the candidate needs to obtain an additional state license, although many already carry one or more licenses.

In both direct placements and contract employment (temp-to-perm), the agency works to find and support candidates who are looking to make a long-term commitment to their laboratory employers, Lingo emphasized. It’s for this reason that the agency invests so much time and money in candidates to ensure a lasting transition to their new employer. “There is a significant dollar investment that we make in each of these individuals for visa processing and later on, a green card. Our goal is that we provide our clients with really good quality candidates who are a good match for their needs and then support them so that they stay at their new employers for a number of years,” he said.

Toward this goal, Lingo’s firm helps new employees from overseas to bring their families to the U.S. and set up a new home. In most cases, the candidate will work at the lab for about 3 months before his or her family arrives, allowing time to acclimate to the new job. “The fact that they’re bringing over their family, enrolling children in the schools, and really setting up roots in the community, shows that they’re looking at this as a new home and are committed to their employers for the long-term,” he said.

For more information on the services of Passport USA, please visit www.passportusa.com or call (800) 605-0926.

Judge Rules Against Non-Uniform Physical Therapist Examinations

Candidates for physical therapy licensure examination (NPTE) in the state of Georgia won an important legal victory in their challenge of a non-uniform examination policy instituted by the Federation of State Boards of Physical Therapy, Inc. (Federation) and subsequently adopted by the State of Georgia licensing board.

In 2010, the Federation, a private vendor with whom the Georgia Board contracts to administer the NPTE, imposed a new policy that prohibited access to the standard NPTE examinations for qualified prospective examinees from four specific countries (The Philippines, India, Pakistan, and Egypt). The Georgia physical therapy licensing board, along with other US state licensing boards, subsequently adopted this NPTE testing ban and other testing restrictions.

As a result of the new Federation policy, qualifying physical therapy graduates from these countries were denied the right to sit for the standard NPTE exam. The prohibition barred the plaintiffs from taking the NPTE even though they had satisfied all of the governing legal and regulatory requirements necessary to sit for the examination under Georgia law. Instead, they were required to take a separate examination from other examinees, called the, NPTE-I, which had yet to be developed. Access to license examination for these candidates was further restricted to two possible examination dates during 2011. At the same time, comparably qualified graduates from US schools and from other countries around the world are allowed to take the standard NPTE licensure examination and are given access to testing dates regularly throughout the year.

The Federation based their separate examination standards and limited testing dates on their belief that prospective examinees from the four designated countries have a greater propensity to cheat on the examination. Rather than adopting alternative practices regularly utilized by other licensing administration companies, or punishing those individuals who can be proven to have cheated, the Federation chose to impose a ban for all applicants educated from these few countries.

On February 9, 2011, the Superior Court (of Georgia) invalidated the testing prohibition and declared it unenforceable. In particular, the Superior Court entered an Order Granting Declaratory Judgment and Permanent Injunction, ruling that “the imposition of non-uniform examination requirements on otherwise qualified candidates based solely on the country in which they received their physical therapy training” was illegal.

The American Association of International Healthcare Recruiters (AAIHR) applauds the judge’s ruling in this case. AAIHR is committed to ensuring the integrity and uniformity of examination for all qualified candidates regardless of the country in which they received their education.

AAIHR President Bill DeVille cautioned, “While this Georgia ruling is a significant event, many other states are still operating by the ill-conceived policy imposed by the Federation. We at AAIHR will continue to advocate for a nationwide repeal of the Federation’s non-uniform testing policy and for a replacement policy which protects patient care in America and protects the integrity of the NPTE exam without imposing non-uniform testing and non-uniform access to examination. We encourage qualifying candidates and healthcare employers to contact their state licensing boards and their state Attorney’s General to request that all qualifying candidates are allowed to take the same examination on the same basis that will now be afforded to qualifying applicants in the state of Georgia.”

The American Association of International Healthcare Recruiters (www.aaihr.org) is a 501 (c)(4) organization dedicated to ensuring legal and ethical international recruitment, as well as fair and consistent regulation relating to the recruitment, credentialing, immigration, licensure, and employment of foreign-educated healthcare professionals.

For more information about AAIHR, the details about this court ruling, or to find out what you can do to help achieve secure, uniform NPTE examinations in your state, please contact us at www.aaihr.org,

Contacts
Shari Sandifer, President, Avant Healthcare Professionals, 407-681-2999 X-102
Michael LeMonier, President, MedPro Staffing, 847-341-1942
Chris Musillo and Cindy Unkenholt, Partners, Musillo, Unkenholt, Immigration Law 513-744-4080

AAIHR Supports Mission of International Healthcare Recruitment

If you are a stakeholder in the recruitment of international healthcare professionals, I am sure that you are keenly aware of the dramatic effects that even small changes in licensure and U.S. visa requirements can have on your business. But you probably aren’t aware of a small, progressive association that is doing great things to support your rights to freely recruit international healthcare professionals (rights afforded you by the immigration laws of the United States and the licensure laws of individual state boards).

This little known association is the American Association of International Healthcare Recruitment (AAIHR). I encourage you to explore membership in this organization if you are in any way engaged in sourcing healthcare professionals from outside of the United States. Currently AAIHR is engaged in activities to ensure that U.S. facilities can continue to source international physical therapists from key source countries despite recent actions from the Federation of State Boards of Physical Therapy (FSBPT).

You can learn more about the activities of AAIHR and enroll for membership at www.aaihr.org.

Are Rural Facilities Coping with or Caving In to Their Recruiting Struggles?

I am seeing a startling trend emerge among rural acute care rehab facilities — many have entirely given up on recruiting. Recruiting on their own at least. 

Several rural facilities I spoke to last week freely expressed that they had been entirely unsuccessful at recruiting therapists. After several months of positions going unfilled, and using contract labor at high rates all the while, several of these rural centers turned to therapy management companies that promised to effectively manage the staffing and resources of their rehab department. Not a bad idea in concept.

However, consider the fact that the facility now has to split the revenue of a profitable rehab department with the therapy management company and the idea seems a whole lot less desirable. Add to this the fact that the rehab management company has basically inherited the recruiting nightmares of the facility and generally has just as hard of a time at attracting talent that will stick around for very long.

What is the hospital left with? — the same old recruiting nightmare and less money in pocket to boot. I try to educate facilities afflicted with this problem that there are plenty of highly skilled, international therapists that are much less sensitive to location that can be recruited quickly and retained for multiple years.

For more information on Better, Faster, More Efficient recruitment please visit our website at www.pasportusa.com.

Med Tech Hiring Difficulties Plague All Types of Facilities

There is growing concern regarding shortages in the number of laboratory professionals entering the U.S. workforce. According to a study conducted by the American Society for Clinical Pathology, 43 percent of laboratories reported significant difficulties in hiring laboratory professionals. This report concludes that the demand for laboratory professionals far outstrips supply.

The shortage could become pronounced with the impact of health care reform, demographic changes, and the forthcoming retirement of many medical technologists and clinical laboratory scientists. Meanwhile, the supply of well-qualified medical technologists available from the Philippines is on the rise.

For more information on Better, Faster, More Efficient recruitment please visit our website at www.pasportusa.com.