A. The department, by rule, shall establish minimum standards for the operation of nurse staffing agencies. Those standards shall include but are not limited to the following:

            (1) The maintenance of written policies and procedures.

            (2) The development of personnel policies, which include a personal interview, a reference check, and an annual evaluation of each employee or contracted staff.

            (3) Licensure application and renewal application procedures and requirements.

            (4) Survey and complaint investigations.

            (5) Provisions for denial, revocation, suspension, and nonrenewal of licenses, and appeals thereof.

            (6) Such other standards or regulations that will ensure proper care and treatment of patients, clients, and persons receiving services.

            B. Each nurse staffing agency shall have a nurse serving as a manager or supervisor of all nurses and certified nurse aides.

            C. Each nurse staffing agency shall ensure that its employees or contracted staff meet the minimum licensing, training, and orientation standards for which those employees or contracted staff are licensed or certified.

            D. A nurse staffing agency shall not employ, assign, or refer for use in a healthcare facility in this state a nurse or certified nurse aide unless the nurse or certified nurse aide is certified or licensed in accordance with the applicable provisions of state and federal laws or regulations. Each certified nurse aide shall comply with all pertinent regulations of the department relating to the health and other qualifications of personnel employed in healthcare facilities.

            E. The department may adopt rules to monitor the usage of nurse staffing agency services to determine their impact.

            F.(1) Nurse staffing agencies are prohibited from requiring, as a condition of employment, assignment, or referral, that their employees or contracted staff recruit new employees for the nurse staffing agency from among the permanent employees of the healthcare facility to which the nurse staffing agency employees or contracted staff have been assigned or referred.

            (2) The healthcare facility is prohibited from requiring, as a condition of employment, its employees to recruit nurse staffing agency employees or contracted staff to become permanent employees at the healthcare facility.

            G. Nurse staffing agencies are prohibited from offering or providing financial incentives to their employees or contracted staff for the purpose of inducing permanent employees of healthcare facilities to which they are assigned to become employed or enter into a contract with the nurse staffing agency.

            H.(1) Except as provided in Paragraph (2) of this Subsection, a nurse staffing agency shall not require, in any contract with a nurse staffing agency employee or contracted staff or a facility to which the employee or staff is assigned, the payment of a fee if the employee or contracted staff is hired as a permanent employee of the facility.

            (2)(a) A nurse staffing agency may require the payment of a fee if the fee is payable solely by the facility and the contract with the facility specifies that the amount will be reduced pro-rata based on the length of time the nurse staffing agency employee or contracted staff performs services for the facility while in the employment of the nurse staffing agency. The fee shall be reduced to zero over a period of time not to exceed eighteen weeks from the date of the nurse staffing agency’s initial assignment of the employee or contracted staff to the facility.

            (b) A nurse staffing agency shall not charge a fee if a nurse staffing agency employee or contracted staff was employed by a facility as a permanent employee less than thirty days immediately preceding the agency’s initial assignment of the employee or contracted staff to the facility.

            Acts 2022, No. 577, §1.