Clasp’s Loan-Linked Hiring Named to TIME’s Best Inventions of 2026

Clasp’s Loan-Linked Hiring has been named to TIME’s Best Inventions of 2026 list, recognizing a new approach to one of healthcare’s most urgent problems: how to recruit clinicians before they enter the workforce and give them a financial reason to stay. See the full list here.

The recognition comes as America’s healthcare workforce shortage is projected to nearly double by 2040. Closing the nursing shortage alone could save nearly 100,000 lives cumulatively over that period. Unfilled positions also drive an estimated $46 billion a year in avoidable healthcare costs, or roughly $430 per U.S. family.

At the same time, the economics of becoming a clinician are getting harder. Students can take on tens or even hundreds of thousands of dollars in debt to enter professions that our health care system desperately needs filled.

Clasp connects those two problems. Its Loan-Linked Hiring model allows healthcare employers to commit to clinicians while they are still in school and repay their student loans over several years of employment. Unlike a sign-on bonus, there are no upfront payments and no clawbacks. Repayment begins only after a clinician graduates, becomes licensed, and starts working, then continues over a multi-year period as they retain.

Launched in March 2026 as ROTC (R etention O ver T urnover C osts) Hiring for Healthcare, the model applies the basic principle behind military ROTC to healthcare: support people earlier in exchange for a long-term commitment to serve.

“America needs more clinicians, but we’ve built a system where becoming one requires taking on life-changing debt,” said Tess Michaels, Founder and CEO of Clasp. “TIME recognizing Loan-Linked Hiring as one of the year’s best inventions validates something we’ve believed from the beginning: the way we finance healthcare education and the way we build the healthcare workforce should not be separate problems. When employers show this kind of investment in clinicians before they enter the workforce, students get a viable path into the profession, hospitals get people who are committed to staying, and patients get the care they need.”

Healthcare employers have now committed more than $200 million toward clinicians’ student loans through Clasp. Participating employers include Wellstar Health System, Novant Health, OhioHealth, Rochester Regional Health, UNC Health Appalachian, Arkansas Children’s Hospital, Shodair Children’s Hospital, BAYADA, Bergen New Bridge, Confluent Health, MyEyeDr., Therapy Partners Group, and VCA Animal Hospitals, and Clasp partners with thousands of clinical training programs nationwide. With the commitment made before they finish training, clinicians arrive ready to put down roots, keeping first-year turnover in high-need roles across Clasp’s partners at about 1 in 20, compared with an industry average of nearly 1 in 5.

This recognition comes as the training pipeline tightens. As of July 1, 2026, federal rules eliminated Grad PLUS loans for new borrowers and capped federal borrowing at $100,000 for most graduate programs and $200,000 for professional degrees. Nurse anesthesia tuition alone can reach $240,000, so for many students the math no longer works, even as the U.S. is projected to be short about 12,500 nurse anesthetists by 2033. When an employer commits to a student before graduation, the student can say yes to training, the hospital fills a role it would have struggled to fill, and patients keep getting care.

To learn more, employers can visit clasp.com/healthcare, and students can visit clasp.com/students.

About Clasp

Clasp is a workforce infrastructure company that connects clinicians with healthcare employers and ties student loan repayment to tenure. Through its Loan-Linked Hiring model, Clasp helps healthcare employers secure talent earlier and improve long-term retention. The company was founded by Tess Michaels in 2018 while she was completing her MBA at Harvard Business School. Raised in a family of physicians, she saw how staffing gaps strain care teams and how student debt shapes where clinicians work and how long they stay.

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