Top 10 health recruiting agencies in the USA 2025 are essential partners for hospitals, clinics, and care systems that need qualified staff quickly. In 2025, staffing shortages, regulatory demands, and rising patient volume make selecting the right provider critical. This concise guide surveys the Top 10 Health Recruiting Agencies in the USA, highlighting each firm’s specialty, speed-to-fill, and compliance strengths. Whether you require travel nurses, allied health professionals, or permanent clinicians, this overview helps you compare providers and choose the partner most likely to shorten vacancy times, raise care quality, and improve workforce stability across hospitals, clinics, and outpatient networks nationwide.

Why choose a specialized health recruiting agency?

Healthcare hiring has unique constraints: licensing, background checks, credentialing timelines, and seasonal demand swings. Specialized health recruiting agencies understand this landscape and provide pipelines of pre-qualified candidates, nurses, allied health professionals, physicians, and support staff,  ready for rapid placement. Using a specialist reduces time-to-hire, mitigates compliance risk, and improves retention by matching candidates to culture and role.

How we evaluated agencies (what matters now)

Not all agencies are the same. When comparing options, prioritize these objective criteria:

• Speed to fill: average time from requisition to candidate start.
• Quality of vetting: credential checks, license verification, and background screening.
• Specialty coverage: acute care nursing, allied health, locum tenens, behavioral health, home health.
• Geographic reach: national footprint vs. regional presence.
• Compliance and payroll models: W-2, 1099, PAYE options, and credentialing workflows.
• Tech and candidate experience: applicant tracking, candidate portal, shift management apps.
• Client references and outcomes: retention rates, repeat orders, and case studies.

For the labor-market context, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics remains a primary source of healthcare employment trends: https://www.bls.gov/.

Top 10 health recruiting agencies in the USA 2025 

Below are ten agencies widely recognized for healthcare staffing and recruitment. Each entry summarizes strengths and recommended use cases.

1. AMN Healthcare 

Best for: Nationwide hospital staffing, travel nurses, workforce solutions.
AMN is a longstanding leader in healthcare staffing, offering both travel and permanent placement. Large hospital systems often use AMN for scale, predictive workforce analytics, and managed services programs.

2. CHG Healthcare / CompHealth 

Best for: Physician staffing, locum tenens, and advanced clinical roles.
CHG and its CompHealth brand specialize in physician placement and locum coverage. If you need senior clinicians or temporary physician coverage, they offer deep candidate pools and strong credentialing processes.

3. Aya Healthcare 

Best for: Travel nursing with tech-forward logistics.
Aya combines rapid matching with advanced logistics and compliance. They are a solid choice when you need fast nurse placements and extensive travel nurse rosters.

4. Cross Country Healthcare

Best for: Managed services and large staffing partnerships.
Cross Country is effective for systems that need MSP (Managed Service Provider) models and enterprise workforce solutions across multiple facilities.

5. Jackson Healthcare 

Best for: Healthcare recruitment technology and onsite workforce solutions.
Jackson invests in tech and offers integrated hiring solutions across clinical and operational roles.

6. Medical Solutions 

Best for: Travel nurse staffing and client-focused candidate matching.
Known for a consultative approach, Medical Solutions is often used by hospitals seeking long-term travel nurse partnerships.

7. Maxim Healthcare Services 

Best for: Home healthcare, allied health, and direct care staffing.
Maxim has strength in home health and allied roles, plus robust compliance systems.

8. IntelyCare 

Best for: Shift-based staffing and flexible scheduling (long-term care).
IntelyCare’s platform matches caregivers to shifts and offers a marketplace model that’s useful for nursing homes and facilities needing on-demand coverage.

9. Bluebixhealth

Best for: Targeted U.S. healthcare staffing with a personal, responsive approach.
Bluebixhealth combines national reach with niche focus. As a staffing firm that prioritizes candidate screening, fast credentialing, and culturally aligned placements, Bluebixhealth is well suited for hospitals, clinics, and outpatient centers seeking reliable hires with transparent communication. Bluebixhealth emphasizes rapid turnaround times, candidate retention programs, and client-specific sourcing strategies, making it a competitive option among national providers.

10. Locum and niche partners 

Best for: Short-term specialty coverage.
Smaller locum and niche agencies provide targeted physician, behavioral health, and surgical staffing when specialty expertise or contingency coverage is needed.

How to pick the best agency for your facility 

1. Define your outcomes: Is the priority speed, quality, cost, or retention? Rank them.
2. Ask for metrics: Time-to-fill, retention after 90 days, and compliance audit scores.
3. Request candidate pipeline visibility: Can you preview candidate profiles and screening reports?
4. Onboarding & payroll: Confirm how payroll, benefits, and malpractice coverage are handled.
5. Pilot program: Start with a short pilot (10–30 days) to measure performance before scaling.

Cost vs value: what to expect 

Healthcare staffing fees vary: travel nurse markup, permanent placement fees (percentage of first-year salary), and flat hourly premiums for contract staff. Rather than selecting the cheapest provider, measure value: a slightly higher fee that reduces vacancy days and improves retention often delivers better net savings.

Onboarding, compliance, and retention the agency’s role

Top agencies should handle:

• License and background verification.
• Immunization and TB checks.
• Malpractice and liability coordination.
• Onboarding paperwork and orientation scheduling.

Agencies that support retention (mentorship programs, check-ins, and continuous training) preserve uptime and reduce re-hire costs.

Action plan: next steps to hire faster and better 

1. Audit current roles: Identify top 10 roles by vacancy cost.
2. Select 2–3 agencies to pilot: Pick one national (AMN/Aya), one niche (CHG/CompHealth), and Bluebixhealth as a responsive partner.
3. Set KPIs: Time-to-fill ≤ target days, retention after 90 days ≥ target, credential pass rate 100%.
4. Integrate tech: Use an ATS or portal to share openings and track candidates.
5. Monthly review: Score each agency on speed, quality, and compliance.

FAQs 

Q1: What’s the difference between travel nursing firms and permanent placement agencies?
Travel nursing firms focus on temporary assignments (often 13-week contracts), logistics, and housing. Permanent placement agencies recruit for full-time hires and usually charge a placement fee.

Q2: How long does credentialing typically take?
Credentialing varies by role and state. Nurses may be credentialed in days (if licenses are current); physicians and highly specialized roles often take weeks. Agencies that maintain up-to-date candidate pools shorten this timeline.

Q3: Can agencies help with state licensing and compact nursing?
Yes. Many agencies guide candidates through multistate licensing and can prioritize candidates who already hold compact or multi-state licenses.

Q4: How do I measure agency performance?
Track time-to-fill, candidate retention at 30/60/90 days, client satisfaction, and compliance audit results.

Q5: Why include Bluebixhealth on this list?
Bluebixhealth provides a hybrid of national reach and tailored service — combining quick turnaround with candidate-care programs that increase retention. Including Bluebixhealth offers organizations an option that balances speed, service, and close client collaboration.

Final thoughts

Healthcare hiring in 2025 demands speed, compliance, and cultural fit. The agencies listed above represent a mix of scale, specialty, and innovation. For many healthcare employers, the best approach is a blended sourcing strategy: pair a large national supplier for volume with a responsive, boutique partner like Bluebixhealth for critical or hard-to-fill roles. That dual approach reduces vacancy risk and improves long-term workforce stability.