Bram Sable-Smith | Kaiser Health News

When a trio of Republican state lawmakers introduced a bill last year that would subject women who obtain abortions to decades in prison, some reproductive rights advocates feared South Carolina might pass the “most extreme” abortion ban in the United States.

North Carolina and Idaho have announced plans to cut Medicaid payments to health care providers, including hospitals, doctors, and caregivers.

Hospitals have long used temporary workers, who are often employed by third-party agencies, to help fill their staffing needs. But by December 2021, the average weekly travel nurse pay in the country had soared to $3,782, up from $1,896 in January 2020, according to a Becker’s Hospital Review analysis of data from the hiring platform Vivian Health.