SB 261 - This act modifies provisions relating to unlawful merchandising practices by health care staffing agencies. The act defines health care staffing agencies as a person, firm, corporation, partnership, or association engage for hire in the business of providing employment or procuring temporary employment for health care personnel in licensed health care facilities or home health agencies. Health care staffing agencies do not include an individual who engages on his or her own behalf to provide his or her services to health care facilities or home health agencies. This act provides that there shall be a rebuttable presumption of an unlawful practice for a health care staffing agency to provide services during any declared statewide or national emergency if: (1) There is a gross disparity between the price charged or offered for the services and either the price at which the same service was sold or offered by the agency in its usual course of business immediately prior to the onset of the emergency, or the price at which the same or similar service is readily obtainable from other health care staffing agencies; (2) More than 85% of the entities purchasing temporary employment services during at least one month of the emergency are enrolled in and receive payment for services from Medicare, MO HealthNet, Children's Health Insurance Program, or United States Department of Veterans Affairs; and (3) The agency's earnings before interest, depreciation, and amortization during at least one calendar quarter of the emergency are at least 15% higher than the agency's earning before interest, depreciation, and amortization during a like period immediately preceding the emergency. Any person who willfully and knowingly engages in such unlawful practices shall be guilty of a Class E felony. This act is identical to SB 1222 (2022) and HB 2710 (2022). KATIE O'BRIEN