The new healthcare reform law covers a lot of ground, measuring in at about 2,400 pages, and twice as long as “War and Peace.”

Much attention this week has focused on big-ticket provisions such as a national exchange for buying insurance, an end to excluding people with preexisting medical conditions.

But scattered throughout the law are also a number of provisions that focus on prevention of illnesses and keeping people fit. And, some healthcare experts say, this is where the real action will be in years ahead.  What jobs will be in demand to service this need?

If you’re considering switching careers, or are just starting to think about where to begin yours, this is the list for you:

#1  Registered Nurse: One of the most in-demand careers in the entire US, registered nurses are projected to generate over 580,000 new jobs by 2016. This does not count the hundreds of thousands of jobs that will become available when older nurses retire. Those following the path toward becoming a registered nurse will find abundant job prospects and ample opportunities.  Call your representatives and tell them to pass the W Visa for nurses that will provide a temporary nonimmigrant category for nurses.  Also tell them to tackle legal immigration first to get the nurses in waiting in the EB-3 category moving forward, given that this is a pre-certified shortage occupation.

#2  Home Health Aide: Home health aides function as caregivers to the many people who are unable to leave their homes or live on their own. Home health aides may check vital signs, administer medicines, and help with daily tasks. The job outlook for home health aides is excellent, especially as baby boomers age and home health aides retire or advance into other careers.

2006 employment: 767,000
2016 projection: 1,156,000
Percent growth: 50.6
Salary range: Less than $21,220
Education/training: On-the-job training

#3  Medical Assistant: Medical assistants perform administrative and clinical tasks in a variety of work settings. A staple of the healthcare industry, medical assistants are in demand all over the US. Employment for medical assistants is estimated to grow much faster than average, and job opportunities should be abundant for medical assistants with formal training or certification.

#4  Pharmacy Technician:  Pharmacy technicians help pharmacists in providing medication and health care products to patients. Because there is currently few state, and no Federal, requirements for formal training, many employers have on-the-job training, which is appealing to individuals who want to further their education without attending multiple years of school.

2006 Employment: 285,000

2016 projection:  376,000

Percent growth:  32

Salary range:  $21,260 – $30,560

Job outlook:  The demand for pharmacy technicians will increase along with the elderly population.  Pharmacies looking to cut costs will shift more responsibilities form pharmacists to technicians

#5  Medical Secretary: Employment is expected to grow faster than average, and job opportunities should be especially good for those who are certified. Employment in hospitals and physician’s offices will continue to grow significantly.

#6  Dental Assistant: Dental assistants are the most in-demand job in the field of dentistry.  Here are the stats:

2006 employment: 280,000
2016 projection: 362,000
Percent growth: 29.2
Salary range: $21,260 – $30,560
Education/training: Moderate on-the-job training
Job outlook: As dental health among older generations improves, routine preventive care is needed more than ever before. Also, younger dentists entering the field are more likely to work with assistants.

#7  Healthcare Administrators; As the backbone of healthcare systems, healthcare administrators take on the duties of overseeing vast expanses of medial personnel. As the structure and financing of the healthcare industry changes, healthcare administrators must be able to adapt to new environments. However, administrators are still in great demand despite the evolving industry.

#8  Medical Records and Health Information Technicians: Medical records and health information technicians maintain the millions of documents the healthcare industry produces. Paperwork includes x-rays, medical histories, lab tests, and treatment plans. Every patient has detailed medical records, and it is necessary that these records be kept organized and confidential. Even with the proliferation of online and electronic health records, the medical records field is expected to grow considerably.

#9  Physical Therapist:  Physical therapy is a growing occupation, especially for those who was interested in pursing an advanced medical degree but do not want to be physicians. Currently, the number of physical therapy jobs is greater than practicing physical therapists because many physical therapists hold more than one job – such as having a private practice and also working part time at another healthcare facility.  Call your representatives and ask them to tackle legal immigration reform first so that the backlog of PTs waiting for green-cards (a pre-certified shortage occupation along with RNs), get moving forward for foreign PTs.

2006 employment: 173,000
2016 projection: 200,000
Percent growth: 27.1
Salary range: $46,360 or more
Education/training: Master’s degree
Job outlook: The growing elderly and disabled population will push demand for physical therapy, an industry that’s constantly expanding its scope.

#10  Physician Assistants:

2006 employment: $66,000
2016 projection: 83,000
Percent growth: 27
Salary range: $46,360 or more
Education/training: Master’s degree
Job outlook: As health care facilities, particularly in rural and inner-city areas, increasingly use physician’s assistants to address physician shortages and save money, job demand will grow.

More on this in the News:

• We link to an article in the LAT:  http://www.latimes.com/sns-health-growing-health-occupations,0,6656383.photogallery

• Healthcare Finance News: http://www.healthcarefinancenews.com/news/healthcare-hiring-could-boom-2010

• Healthcare Reform:  How it Might Work for Real People:

http://www.cnn.com/2010/HEALTH/03/23/health.care.scenarios/index.html

We have been advised that USCIS will hold a 2nd in-person and teleconferenced meeting on the above topic on Friday, March 26th at 3:00 (Eastern). We link to a copy of the Meeting Invitation that contains the RSVP information.

The American Immigration Lawyers Association (AILA) sent a letter to USCIS, requesting that the January 8th “Neufeld memo” on the “employer-employee relationship” be withdrawn listing four key problems.

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Here’s an update with some new developments in re the H-1B Memo:

1. The memo is a new policy that is inconsistent with current regulations: The regulations already define “employer” for H-1B context and indicates control when the employer “may hire, pay, fire, supervise, or otherwise control the work of any such employee.” The Memo adds additional requirements beyond what the regulations state.

2. The position taken by USCIS imposes significant economic burdens on business, at a time when the government should be trying to encourage business growth, in that employers will be required to spend considerable time and money gathering additional evidence to file their H-1B petitions and/or respond to RFE’s. Also, AILA pointed to several studies of the positive economic impact of H-1B employment, including a study that found that “U.S. technology companies increase their employment by an average of five U.S. workers for each H-1B worker they hire.”

3. The memo will have serious adverse affects on employers and individuals: AILA pointed to state restrictions on physicians being employed directly by hospitals and to locum tenens and other temporary staffing arrangements in the health care arena (including therapists) where it will be difficult to satisfy the new standards of the memo. AILA also pointed to government contracts as not being able to meet the standards. The memo will also negatively affect H-1B workers who change employers or extend status, and may have adverse effects on permanent residence petitions. AILA noted that it is not just the H-1B petitioner and the H-1B visa holder that are impacted — the end-users are also affected as they may experience a disruption in work for an H-1B worker that is not able to timely extend status or when additional staffing is needed.

4. The policy is spreading to other non-immigrant and immigrant petitions: AILA noted that USCIS has been adjudicating L-1 petitions and I-140 petitions based upon this new, heightened standard of the employer-employee relationship.

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For those of you who might have missed the Immigration Solutions teleconference that we had on “Tougher Standards for H-1B’s”, you can access the audio recording here.

If you would like to share with us any recent experiences you’ve had or your input as to how this Memo has impacted your business, please feel free to do so.

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Lastly, we are available to assist you with your H-1B filings and have developed some smart approaches as to how to deal with these new regulations and document requirements. Contact us today. If you file your own H-1B cases and require consultation or a skilled attorney to review your petitions, we also offer these services.

Beginning March 1, 2010, VisaScreen renewal applicants who can demonstrate employment in the United States in the health care profession that is designated on their International Commission on Healthcare Professions VisaScreen certificate do not have to take another approved English exam for renewal of their VisaScreen certificate if the following criteria are met:

1)  The period of employment must be for at least 27–36 months, including nine months of the year before the date an applicant submits the renewal application.

2)  They will need to have their employer submit an employment summary on corporate letterhead with the appropriate signature for the English requirement to be waived.

CGFNS has made the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services aware of this policy change.

CGFNS is an immigration-neutral, nonprofit organization based in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA, and is an internationally recognized authority on the education, registration and licensure of nurses worldwide. CGFNS’s mission is to provide responsible leadership in the delivery of relevant services to the global nursing and health care community. The organization was founded in 1977 through a collaborative effort by representatives from the U.S. Department of Labor; Department of Health, Education and Welfare (now the Department of Health and Human Services); the Immigration and Naturalization Service; and representatives from nursing organizations, including the American Nurses Association and the National League for Nursing.

For additional information about CGFNS and its services, contact: CGFNS International, 3600 Market Street, Suite 400, Philadelphia, PA 19104-2651 USA; telephone: +1 (215) 222 8454.

The petitions of applicants who will be processed at an overseas US Consular post are forwarded by USCIS to the Department of State (DOS).  Applicants in categories subject to numerical limit are registered on the visa waiting list.  Each case is assigned a priority date based on the filing date of the initial petition.  There are about 3.5 million on this list.  This is positively disastrous when you consider that our current laws permit 376,000 people to immigrant to the USA each year under the family-based and employment-based systems, with the average wait being over 10 years long!

There are probably another 1 million in the USA waiting to adjust their status and these numbers aren’t even reflected in the DOS report.

About 95% of the people on the list are in the family-based categories and more than 1/2 of these are  in the brother-sister 4th preference category.  At the 65,000 number level for this category, this is a wait time that averages 10-26 years!

The total employment numbers waiting a priority date:  130,509 including 119,759 in the EB-3 category.  This is a 3-4 year wait, ignoring per country limits.  The countries with the largest backlogs are the Philippines (45,331 – mostly nurses and their families.  Yes, there’s something wrong with this picture!) and India (20,467 – mostly IT professionals and their families – something is wrong with this picture, too!).  Then we hear politicians and uninformed folks saying “get in line and wait your turn”  – like the line is actually moving!

It’s a sad state of affairs that points squarely at the fact that we must first focus on legal immigration reform – getting these wait times down to something reasonable.  Do we have any representatives courageous enough to vote for legal immigration reform so that we have a system that doesn’t punish people who play by the rules?

In light of the recent controversial USCIS 19-page January 8, 2010 memo where USCIS takes a very strident and restrictive position on staffing agencies as employer/petitioners, we find it particularly disconcerting to learn that there are 200,000 contract employees working at the DHS, more than the 188,000 “civilian” workforce.

In a letter sent to the agency’s Secretary Janet Napolitano, Lieberman and Collins said the figure “raises the question of whether DHS itself is in charge of its programs and policies, or whether it inappropriately has ceded core decisions to contractors.”

Napolitano is slated to appear before the Senate committee and is expected to face questions on the subject. The senators want a unit-by-unit breakdown of where in Homeland Security the contractors are working and have asked for assurances that contractors are not performing “inherently governmental work.”

Clark Stevens, a spokesman for Homeland Security, told CNN Tuesday that “Secretary Napolitano has been strongly committed to decreasing the department’s reliance on contractors and strengthening the federal work force” at Homeland Security.

“Over the past year, we have been actively converting contractor positions to government positions and will continue to build on these efforts at an even more aggressive pace this year. We are working across the department to identify and make additional conversions as quickly as possible while sustaining the work force required to carry out our critical mission,” Stevens said.

How ironic could this possibly be?!  We will keep you posted.  For the story on CNN

VisaScreen® renewal:

VisaScreen® certificate holders who have not obtained a permanent U.S. visa are required to renew their certificates within five years of the issue date. VisaScreen® renewal certificate applicants should begin the process six months before their current certificate expires. The renewal fee is
$250 USD. The renewal application is available for download at www.cgfns.org/files/pdf/apps/VisaScreenReApp.pdf or applicants may apply online through CGFNS Connect.

Expedited Review Service:

Service for VisaScreen® to include applicants who have an offer for employment, in addition to those who have a Request for Evidence or a deportation deadline regarding their U.S. visa application.

VisaScreen® applicants are eligible for this Expedited Review Service only I they have met the criteria of Section 343 of the Illegal Immigration Reform Immigrant Responsibility Act; we have received all required documents and we have received a copy of their Request for Evidence, deportation deadline or offer for employment accompanied by a completed CGFNS Expedited Review Service form.

To apply for the Expedited Review Service, eligible VisaScreen® applicants will need to call CGFNS Customer Service between the hours of 8am and Noon, U.S. Eastern Time, to receive instructions. (see contact info below)

We will need the items requested above with an online credit card payment of $500. CGFNS will then perform the necessary review within five business days and, if all requirements have been successfully met, issue a VisaScreen® certificate via UPS next day air. Applicants who are ineligible for a VisaScreen® certificate based on the review will be notified. Fees for the Expedited Review Service are not refundable.

CGNS increases prices on its services:

CGFNS International announced on 21 December 2009 a new pricing structure for core services and several ancillary services.  Applications for the Certification Program, the Credentials Evaluation Service, the VisaScreen®: Visa Credentials Assessment program, the Credential Verification Service for New York State and ancillary services received on or after 1 January 2010 will be charged according to the new fee schedule.

The updated 2010 fees can be found here.

Contact Information:

CGFNS Customer Service* +1 (215) 349 8767
Automated Voice Response Telephone System +1 (215) 599 6200
Appointments* +1 (215) 222 8454
Mailing address Suite 400, 3600 Market Street, Philadelphia, PA 19104-2651
CGFNS Web site http://www.cgfns.org
CGFNS Connect https://www.cgfns.org/cerpassweb/intro.jsp
Apply/Check Status https://www.cgfns.org/cerpassweb/intro.jsp
Email https://www.cgfns.org/cerpassweb/processContactUs.do

Yes – it’s the season to start preparing H-1B “cap” filings again for Fiscal Year 2011.

The USCIS FY starts on October 1st each year. Thus, fiscal year 2011 starts on October 1, 2010 and runs through September 30, 2011.  Regulations permit cap subject filings 6 months in advance of the October start date for cases to be received at USCIS on April 1, 2010.

The following are suggestions to help you for the upcoming cap season.  Our suggestions are based on existing law, as well as USCIS guidance and our experience from prior years.

USCIS frequently issues updated guidance with slight procedural variations for each fiscal year. For example, the LCA process changed in July – note it is taking sometimes up to 7 days to obtain an approval.  In case of a denial such as problems with verifying an employer’s EIN# which is quite common unfortunately, obtaining an LCA may take even longer.

Immigration Solutions is accepting H-1B cases for FY2011 at this time.  We have a team of experienced attorneys, case managers and paralegals in our business unit who are currently working on new H-1B cap-subject cases.  The cases will be prepared in advance and will be transmitted for delivery on March 31, 2010, for USCIS filing on April 1^st.  In order to file, it is necessary to have an appropriate job offer from a U.S. employer who is willing to sponsor the H-1B case.

The USCIS has increased scrutiny on all H-1B cases and imposed tougher standards, particularly those filed in the IT consulting industry and for software companies. These new standards also affect healthcare staffing agencies that place workers at 3^rd party jobsites.   The standards for approval have become more stringent. It is necessary to recognize this trend when preparing new H-1B cap cases for filing.  For this reason, we recommend that you work with an experienced law firm that specializes in employment-based immigration. Click here to contact us for your new H-1B case now.

NOTE:  Immigration Solutions is sponsoring a free teleconference on February 10^th that will address the tougher standards in the H-1B category.  For more on this and to RSVP, we link to our blog

Details

When: Wednesday, February 10, 2010
Time: 11:00 a.m. – 12 noon PST
Click Here to view time conversion for your area

RSVP: info@immigrationsolution.net

Reserve your space now | This will be a most informative teleconference that you will not want to miss.

Our Agenda will be as follows:

• How to prepare for H-1B quota issues
• Tougher standards (difficult RFEs)
• We will review the new 19-page USCIS Memo regarding employer-employee relationships
• Critical new information for Healthcare and IT staffing agencies
• New Documentation Requirements
• Comprehensive Immigration Reform and expectations for 2010
• Open Q&A

In this conference, we will convey critical and comprehensive information to our clients and readership which we are making public and are offering at no charge.

In the last year, signs have been in place concerning greater enforcement and over-burdensome Requests For Evidence (RFE’s) by USCIS, including site visits by 4 federal agencies (USCIS, DHS, FDNS and DOL).  Higher standards are being imposed with each filing season for all employers who file H-1B petitions for degreed professionals.

We are seeing that this is not just taking place with H-1B initial filings, but with extensions, L visas and we have even heard of site visits to employers who filed O-1 petitions.

Our Featured Speaker: Thomas Joy, Supervising Attorney | Immigration Solutions

Immigration Solutions’ supervising attorney, Thomas Joy, will moderate this conference.  Mr. Joy has over 25 years’ practicing immigration law with some of the leading firms in the nation.  Mr. Joy has been interviewed on television regarding current immigration issues, has published articles on various current immigration concerns, and has conducted seminars for corporations, law firms and professional organizations, both in and outside of the USA. He travels throughout the USA and the world representing clients at USCIS offices and US embassies and consulates. In addition, he advises and accompanies employers and recruiters on international recruitment drives who seek the top candidates in the IT and healthcare industries.

About Us

Immigration Solutions continues to be at the cutting edge of developments in business immigration. We are dedicated to providing our clients with the solutions required today to circumvent the complexities of immigration law. We understand the challenges that you deal with on a daily basis and design practical and strategic business models to answer your needs. This focused approach produces win-win results for everyone!

If you are not yet a client of Immigration Solutions, we would be pleased to speak further with you concerning your needs, our services & solutions, and our newly developed corporate rates.

Unlike many other industries, the healthcare sector is projected to continue growing.  The federal Bureau of Labor Statistics released a report in December 2009 that projected an additional four million jobs will be created in the healthcare and social assistance fields during the period from 2008 to 2018.

There’s an extreme shortage of primary care physicians; there’s an extreme shortage of registered nurses.  Healthcare organizations need to be proactive in planning for the future.

Expanding the capacity of nursing schools is another essential element in preparing the workforce for coming changes, especially if the healthcare system evolves to the point where it needs more advanced practice nurses. There will be a need to educate even more nurses, and capacity would continue to be a problem.

That means that many healthcare organizations may be scrambling to fill vacancies and to develop creative and efficient strategies to deliver patient care.

We link to this article in Healthcare Briefings for more.