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Pivotal Healthcare Labor and Employment Law Issues in 2025 Continue on Into 2026

By Jody Ward-Rannow and Tyler C. Strobel
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In 2025, employers in the healthcare industry navigated challenges imposed by rapid change and a shifting regulatory landscape, including changes related to artificial intelligence (AI) and data privacy, staffing and wage and hour concerns, workplace safety, and immigration. In 2025, Ogletree published on many of these issues, which are summarized below. We anticipate that these and other pertinent healthcare issues may continue to pose challenges for employers in the healthcare industry in 2026.

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Quick Hits

  • In 2025, healthcare employers faced increasing privacy litigation and shifting regulations around healthcare privacy, including ADA compliance, federal privacy protections, and state AI and health data laws, with heightened HIPAA enforcement by HHS.
  • Healthcare employers in 2025 dealt with staffing shortages and wage and hour issues, influenced by proposed FLSA changes, civil awards for worker misclassification, state court rulings on meal and rest periods, and restrictions on noncompetition provisions and H-1B visa fees.
  • In 2026, healthcare staffing will continue to be an issue for employers in 2026, and states are continuing to focus on AI and privacy in the workplace, staffing, and workplace safety.

Privacy: While privacy litigation is on the rise, the regulatory landscape around healthcare privacy continues to shift, causing uncertainty for employers in the healthcare industry. Employers continued to face privacy considerations for Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) compliance, shifting federal privacy protections for substance-abuse records and reproductive health information, and changes to state AI laws and health data laws, all while the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) ramped up Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) enforcement.

Staffing: As the nation continues to experience staffing shortages of healthcare professionals, healthcare employers saw an increase in wage and hour considerations across both ordinary workers and workers from staffing agencies. These included proposed changes to Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) exemptions in home health, sizable civil awards against staffing companies for misclassification of workers, and changes in state courts to meal and rest period class actions. State laws limiting noncompetition provisions and other restrictive covenants for healthcare professionals, as well as the federal government’s $100,000 fee for H-1B visa petitions also impacted the supply of healthcare professionals.

Workplace Safety: At a time when healthcare worker safety is critically important and amid federal changes to the Occupational Safety and Health Administration’s (OSHA) authority, employers in the healthcare industry were among the highest reporters of workplace safety incidents, including continued assaults by patients against healthcare workers. Healthcare employers encountered new state laws regarding threats against workplace and medical facilities, public and legal expectations pertaining to viral exposure and vaccinations, improvements to workplace violence prevention measures in eight states, a recommendation to increase employer liability for employee sexual assault, and proposed rulemaking pertaining to COVID-19 exposure in healthcare settings.

Looking Forward to 2026

AI and Privacy: An increasing number of states continue to pass AI laws on employers. At least one state has proposed legislation that prohibits the use of discriminatory AI in employment decisions. For example, Illinois has proposed legislation limiting the use of AI in employment decisions that result in discrimination. Colorado’s Artificial Intelligence Act, currently set to become effective in the summer of 2026, also may impose restrictions on AI usage in employment, especially if the AI system is discriminatory. As privacy and AI laws continue to evolve, we anticipate seeing a related rise in privacy litigation against employers and entities using AI.

Staffing: As ongoing shortages of nurses, physicians, and other healthcare professionals continue to affect healthcare employer staffing, 2026 has seen and will continue to see a further increase in the use of both staffing agencies and in wage and hour issues with healthcare employees. In Washington and Minnesota, new state legislation will affect healthcare worker meal and rest period breaks. Continued state-level restrictions on restrictive covenants in the healthcare industry may also affect how healthcare employers can maintain their staffing levels.

Workplace Safety: In the absence of clear federal regulations on workplace safety, states continue to emphasize the importance of workplace safety for employees, especially healthcare employees.

Ogletree Deakins’ Healthcare Industry Group will continue to monitor developments and will post updates on the Cybersecurity and Privacy, Healthcare Immigration, State Developments, Unfair Competition and Trade Secrets, Wage and Hour, Workplace Investigations and Organization Assessments, Workplace Safety and Health, and Workplace Violence Protection blogs as additional information becomes available.

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California , Colorado , Connecticut , Cybersecurity and Privacy , Healthcare , Illinois , Immigration , Louisiana , Maine , Maryland , Minnesota , New Jersey , New York , Oregon , State Developments , Texas , Unfair Competition and Trade Secrets , Wage and Hour , Washington , Workplace Investigations and Organizational Assessments , Workplace Safety and Health , Workplace Violence Prevention

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