AI-Powered Gig Nursing Platforms Push for Healthcare Deregulation, Report Warns
Billion-dollar technology platforms are aggressively lobbying to deregulate the healthcare industry through "Uber for nurses" applications, according to a concerning new report published this week. The comprehensive analysis from the AI Now Institute, titled "Uber for Nursing Part II: How Gig Nursing Companies Are Lobbying States to Deregulate Healthcare," examines how artificial intelligence is being deployed to staff hospitals and medical facilities at the direct expense of workers' rights, protections, and fair compensation.
The Algorithmic Undermining of Nursing Protections
Similar to ride-share company models, these gig nursing platforms utilize artificial intelligence systems to establish pay rates for work shifts, monitor performance metrics through surveillance technologies, and utilize collected data to determine a healthcare worker's future access to employment opportunities and compensation levels. The industry has implemented a particularly troubling practice where nurses must bid against each other for available shifts, with the position typically going to whoever accepts the lowest hourly wage.
"AI is incorporated into all these human management software systems, and for nurses, that means dropping them into all kinds of places, without orientation, without workers compensation, without any way to protect themselves if they're sick and they need to cancel," explained Dr. Katie J Wells, co-author of the report and senior fellow at AI Now. "That also means, for a lot of these apps, using AI technologies to facilitate a bidding war against nurses."
Lucrative Business Model and Expanding Influence
The report reveals that three nurse gig platforms have already achieved billion-dollar valuations as they receive substantial investments from private equity firms and secure government contracts to staff public facilities, including Immigration and Customs Enforcement detention centers. This financial success has enabled extensive lobbying efforts across multiple states to create regulatory exemptions specifically for these platforms.
Since 2022, lawmakers in at least seventeen states have introduced legislation designed to exempt gig nursing platforms from regulations that apply to traditional healthcare staffing agencies. The lobbying has proven successful in several states, with exemption bills advancing in Colorado, Illinois, Iowa, Louisiana, Minnesota, Missouri, Nevada, and Rhode Island.
Systematic Erosion of Worker Protections
Gig nursing companies have additionally lobbied for policies that exempt their platforms from established worker protection laws, with these carve-out provisions advancing in Georgia, Ohio, California, Pennsylvania, Missouri, and Wisconsin. Currently, gig nursing platforms enjoy exemptions from worker protection laws in West Virginia and unemployment insurance regulations in Louisiana.
The report draws direct parallels between these healthcare lobbying efforts and those previously undertaken by ride-share companies seeking to avoid transportation industry regulations. At the federal level, the industry is pushing for legislation that would expand "independent work" classifications and include provisions allowing government contracting of gig nursing platforms during emergencies while indemnifying these companies from liability for patient injuries.
Disciplinary Systems and Patient Safety Concerns
Platforms like Clipboard Health implement disciplinary point systems that deduct points from nurses for cancelling shifts, with more points subtracted when less notice is provided, and additional penalties for arriving late to scheduled shifts. These practices raise significant concerns about worker wellbeing and patient safety in a sector that has traditionally provided reliable job growth in the United States.
"I'm really hoping that we can protect health care from what I fear is a sort of more aggressive attack, at least if we look since 2022 at just how much ground these companies have traveled," added Dr. Wells. "They've made such headway in so many places about pushing back worker protections, but also public safety concerns and patient wellbeing."
Contrasting Regulatory Approaches
The report highlights New York state as a contrasting example, where legislation passed in 2025 mandates that gig platforms must comply with existing state regulations governing healthcare staffing agencies. This regulatory approach stands in stark opposition to the exemption strategies being pursued in other jurisdictions.
"There's a huge concern that if this model continues to gain acceptance or carve outs, a lot of jobs, I think, could go this way," concluded Dr. Wells. "We focus so often on how AI is going to replace your jobs, and, OK, maybe. But also, first AI is going to totally degrade it and leave you without protections."
