Making Data Work: Collecting Better Health Care Workforce Data to Inform State Policy and Planning

Policy Points

• States’ lack of accurate, reliable data on health care worker supply, distribution, and characteristics compromises state efforts to fund education, professional development, and other recruitment and retention efforts, as well as their planning capacity.
• Opportunities to improve state health workforce data collection include mandating data collection as part of the professional licensing process and standardizing approaches to data collection.
• States’ investment in more complete and accurate health care workforce data — through programs such as the Rural Health Transformation Fund — will generate a long-term return on investment by maximizing appropriate federal bonuses, loan repayment dollars, and other funding.

Executive Summary

The COVID-19 pandemic exacerbated health care workforce shortages across many professions, including primary care physicians, behavioral health professionals, nurses and other direct care professionals. Even before COVID-19, the National Academy of Medicine reported that burnout had reached “crisis levels” among the nation’s health care workforce. Burnout and staffing shortages impact patient care and safety, increase costs (e.g., turnover and use of more expensive options such as traveling nurses), and further constrain access to care. Since the pandemic, health care workforce shortages have remained high and are projected to continue through 2036.1 More than 500 bills related to health care workforce issues were passed by state legislatures in 2024. Despite this, accurate, reliable data on health care worker supply, distribution, and characteristics remains elusive for many states. The lack of workforce information compromises state efforts to fund education, professional development, and other recruitment and retention efforts, even for in-demand professionals such as primary care and behavioral health providers. It also limits states’ ability to plan for future health care needs.

This policy brief provides an overview of opportunities to improve state health care workforce data collection and analysis. This brief was informed by interviews with 12 agency leaders and technical experts across seven states and written responses from the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA). Themes from the discussions are shared in aggregate and inform the priorities and considerations.

Considerations for Collection and Analysis of Health Care

Workforce Data

Priority 1: Improve the completeness of health care workforce data

• Consideration 1: Mandate data collection as part of the professional licensing process, through regulation or legislation
• Consideration 2: Develop a strategy to collect data from non- licensed health care professionals.

Priority 2: Improve the comparability of health care workforce data

• Consideration 3: Standardize data collection
• Consideration 4: Collaborate across states to standardize metrics, analyses, and reporting

Implementing these priorities and considerations will advance states’ ability to:

1. Seek adequate state and federal funding through standardized/comparable supply and demand reporting and shortage information.
2. Conduct more informed health care planning efforts.
3. Identify and monitor professions facing potential shortages (e.g., primary care, behavioral health).
4. Inform and prioritize policies related to recruitment and retention, ranging from payment design and reimbursement levels to grants and loan repayment.