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Mounting pressures on the health care workforce have created a crisis with short-term staffing shortages and a long-range picture of an unfulfilled talent pipeline, and significant projected shortages of physicians and allied health and behavioral health care providers will likely be felt even more strongly in underserved communities, AHA told the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee in a statement submitted for a May 2 to examine federal approaches to address the shortage of minority health care professionals and the maternal health crisis. 
 
"A diverse workforce recognizes that understanding the cultures, issues and needs of local patient populations can result in better decision-making about how to serve those communities and positively impact patient experience, safety and quality," AHA wrote. "Yet today, people of color are vastly underrepresented across the health professions." 
 
AHA expressed support for federal programs and legislation that would help increase workforce diversity in health care and reduce attrition. AHA also urged the Senate to pass the Preventing Maternal Deaths Reauthorization Act (S. 2415), bipartisan legislation that would reauthorize federal support for state-based maternal mortality review committees, which review pregnancy-related deaths to identify causes of — and make recommendations to prevent — maternal mortality. 

Testifying at the hearing were Sen. Laphonza Butler, D-Calif.; Rep. Michael Burgess, M.D., R-Texas; Yolanda Lawson, M.D., president of the National Medical Association; Samuel Cook, M.D., a third-year resident at Morehouse School of Medicine; Michael Galvez, M.D., co-creator of National Latino Physician Day and a surgeon at Valley Children's Hospital; Jaines Andrades, D.N.P., Baystate Health; and Brian Stone, M.D., a urologist from Jasper, Ala.