A close up of the H-1B visa stamp in a passport. Evgenia Parajanian/iStockphoto/Getty Images

When the Trump administration announced last month that every new H-1B visa would come with a $100,000 fee , the objective seemed straightforward: encourage companies, particularly tech companies that heavily on the program, to start hiring American workers and stop driving down American wages.

But the health care industry is raising concerns that the price hike on the H-1B visa will threaten the ability of hospitals in rural and underserved areas to bring in foreign workers and fulfill a shortage of specialists needed to serve the community.

“There’s no way we’re going to pay $100,000,” Carolynn Lundry, a residency program coordinator at St. Luke’s Hospital in the St. Louis suburb of Ch

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