CROSS COUNTRY HEALTHCARE INC (CCRN) Business

Item 1. Business.

Overview of Our Company

Cross Country Healthcare, Inc. (Nasdaq: CCRN) is a healthcare workforce solutions company delivering an AI-powered digital platform and advisory services, backed by nearly 40 years of healthcare labor expertise, to help health systems optimize and sustain their entire labor ecosystem.

Through Intellify®, Cross Country's cloud-based workforce management and vendor management system, health systems gain clear visibility across internal and contingent labor. Intellify® integrates with core hospital systems and brings all service lines, including non-clinical, nursing, allied health, and locums, into one centralized view. Powered by real-time analytics and AI-driven insights, Intellify® helps leaders make smarter workforce decisions, streamline operations, reduce labor costs, improve flexibility, and support high-quality outcomes.

Leveraging national and in-market staffing teams, we place highly qualified healthcare professionals in virtually every specialty on travel and per diem assignments, local short-term contracts, and permanent positions. We also place teachers, substitute teachers, and other education specialties at educational facilities, healthcare leaders within nursing, allied, physician, and human resources at healthcare organizations, and non-healthcare providers to participants in Programs of All-Inclusive Care for the Elderly (PACE) programs. Our varied customer base includes both public and private acute care and non-acute care hospitals, outpatient clinics, ambulatory care facilities, single and multi-specialty physician practices, rehabilitation facilities, PACE programs, urgent care centers, local and national healthcare systems, managed care providers, public and charter schools, correctional facilities, government facilities, pharmacies, and many other healthcare providers including those in underserved communities. By utilizing the solutions that we offer, customers are able to better plan their personnel needs, optimize their talent acquisition and management processes, strategically flex and balance their workforce, have access to quality healthcare personnel, and provide continuity of care for improved patient outcomes. We believe that our national footprint provides a unique value proposition, as we are able to engage with a broader pool of talent and offer customers a more consultative approach relying on our understanding of the local and regional markets that they serve.

We offer services to our customers through our two reportable segments as described below:

(1)    Nursing and Allied Staffing. The Nurse and Allied Staffing segment provides traditional staffing, recruiting, and value-added total talent solutions, including: (i) temporary and permanent placement of travel and local nurse and allied professionals, and healthcare leaders within nursing, allied, human resources, and finance; (ii) vendor neutral programs and managed service programs (MSPs); (iii) education healthcare services; (iv) caregiver services to PACE programs (home-based staffing); and (v) outsourcing services. We also serve as a direct-hire talent acquisition partner

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to healthcare organizations and academic institutions throughout the nation, providing a full suite of prescriptive talent management solutions, including flexible talent delivery models such as executive search services for healthcare professionals, as well as contingent search and recruitment process outsourcing (RPO) services. We also offer our Software as a Service (SaaS)-based, proprietary, vendor management technology, Intellify® to facilities to manage all or a portion of their agency services.

A majority of our revenue is generated from staffing registered nurses and allied professionals on travel contract assignments of varying lengths (typically, 13 weeks) at hospitals and health systems. We staff registered nurses, licensed practical nurses, certified nurse assistants, advanced practitioners, pharmacists, and more than 100 specialties of allied professionals on local per diem and short-term assignments in a variety of clinical and non-clinical settings. We also provide clinical and non-clinical professionals on long-term assignments to customers such as public and private acute care and non-acute care hospitals, government facilities, public and charter schools, academic medical centers, outpatient clinics, ambulatory care facilities, physician practice groups, local and national healthcare plans, managed care providers, PACE programs, correctional facilities, and many other healthcare providers. We also receive administrative fees from subcontractors at our MSP clients or from those subcontractors who use our Intellify® technology solution to staff hospital facilities directly.

(2)    Physician Staffing. Our Physician Staffing segment provides licensed practitioners across a broad array of specialties, as well as certified registered nurse anesthetists (CRNAs), nurse practitioners (NPs), and physician assistants (PAs) on temporary assignments throughout the United States (U.S.). The list of customers we serve includes healthcare facilities, such as acute and non-acute care facilities, medical group practices, government facilities, and managed care organizations. We recruit these professionals nationally and place them on assignments varying in length from several days up to one year. We also offer our vendor management technology, Intellify® to these facilities to manage all or a portion of their agency services.

Our Nurse and Allied Staffing and Physician Staffing revenue and contribution income is set forth in Note 17 - Segment Data to the consolidated financial statements.

The healthcare staffing industry continues to evolve, with both healthcare providers and professionals demanding speed and placing heavier reliance on technology for fulfillment and delivery activities. Recognizing this trend, we are continuing on a path of digital transformation and innovation across our business with investments in expanding our technology capabilities both on the customer facing and candidate engagement fronts. We have executed multiple initiatives to enhance our position as a leading, consultative, and strategic partner in the healthcare industry. Some key focus areas include personalizing the candidate experience, delivering a superior customer experience, infusing technology-enablement to drive efficiencies and increased productivity, and continuing our commitment to clinical excellence. As part of our 2025 IT strategy, we continued to invest in technologies for both internal and externally facing systems, with a focus on utilizing artificial intelligence (AI) and other automation technologies. In 2025, we added innovative search and match capabilities for both our internal staff and our candidates. We also added capabilities to our Intellify® platform to support our Education business. We expect these initiatives to drive growth through better operational execution, enhanced productivity, and a world-class customer and candidate experience.

Areas of investment also include recruitment and candidate nurturing tools, market analytics, mobile applications and self-serve capabilities, programmatic advertising, social media, and other technology. These investments enhance our recruiting capabilities and allow us to quickly respond to demand across a wide range of specialties.

One of our goals is to grow stockholder value by continuing to deepen our relationships with current customers and healthcare professionals, expanding the number and types of new customers we serve, growing the supply and types of specialties of our healthcare professionals, improving our operating leverage through growth and cost containment, and strengthening and broadening our market presence. This requires our continued focus on: (i) providing workforce solutions offerings to new customers; (ii) expanding the services we provide to current customers, including usage of Intellify®, (iii) further diversifying our customer base; (iv) accessing more candidates; and (v) continuing to modernize technologies and processes to optimize our relationships with healthcare professionals and customers.

To successfully execute our business strategy, we rely on experienced and innovative executive and operational teams. Our executive team has extensive experience in staffing, workforce solutions, technology services, and healthcare industries. We also foster a culture of performance, talented leadership, and collegiality that promotes the achievement of Company, professional and personal goals. With more than 20 healthcare clinicians on our corporate staff, our Clinical Quality Council continues to serve as an advisory committee to our entire organization and customers. In 2022, the Company’s Chairman and current Chief Executive Officer (CEO) and President was named to the Staffing Industry Analysts’ Staffing 100 List of the

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most notable leaders in the industry, and was also nominated as a top staffing leader to watch in 2023 for World Staffing Awards. At least one of our executives has been included on Staffing Industry Analysts’ 2025 and 2024 Global Power 150 - Women in Staffing List that recognizes the 100 most influential women in the Americas and 50 additional women internationally. Another executive has been recognized as one of the 2025 Top 10 Marketing professionals presented by OnCon.

As previously disclosed, on December 3, 2024, the Company entered into an Agreement and Plan of Merger (Aya Merger Agreement) with Aya Holdings II Inc. (Parent), Spark Merger Sub One Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Parent, and, solely for the limited purposes set forth therein, Aya Healthcare, Inc., providing for, subject to the satisfaction or waiver of certain conditions, the acquisition of the Company by Parent (the Aya Merger).

After market close on December 3, 2025, the Company received a notice of termination of the Aya Merger Agreement from Parent, effective December 4, 2025, as a result of the Aya Merger not being consummated prior to the end date under the Aya Merger Agreement. In accordance with the terms of the Aya Merger Agreement, Parent paid a termination fee of $20.0 million in cash to the Company.

Effective December 14, 2025, John A. Martins, the Company’s President and Chief Executive Officer (CEO), separated from the Company. Kevin C. Clark, the Company’s current Chairman of the Board, former CEO (from January 16, 2019 through March 31, 2022), and co-founder, was appointed President and CEO of the Company, effective December 15, 2025. Mr. Clark will continue to serve as the Chairman of the Board.

Market Challenges

To remain competitive within our industry, we are required to continuously innovate, improve processes, and expand services to meet the needs of our employees, customers and their patients. The market remains highly competitive for both clients and candidates, especially within travel nurse and allied.

We plan to continue to manage the business for long-term success and strategically position ourselves for future growth opportunities in the market. We are committed to continuing to grow our base of clinicians on assignment and our market share while maintaining the quality that we are known for.

Our Business Model

The recruitment and retention of a sufficient number of qualified healthcare professionals to work temporary assignments on our behalf is critical to the success of our business. Healthcare professionals choose temporary assignments for a variety of reasons that include seeking flexible work opportunities, seeking higher compensation, exploring diverse practice settings, building skills and experience by working at prestigious healthcare facilities, working through life and career transitions, and as a means of access to a permanent staff position all while practicing in the most appreciated and highly altruistic trade.

(1)Our Healthcare Professionals.

Nurse and Allied Staffing. Our Company is well positioned to attract candidates, as clinical professionals routinely seek a wide range of assignments in attractive locations, with competitive compensation and benefit packages, scheduling options, as well as a high level of service. We believe nurses and allied professionals are confident that we will be able to offer them new assignments as they complete their current assignment. Each of our nurse and allied healthcare professionals is employed by us and is typically paid an hourly wage and receive other benefits they are entitled to receive during the assignment period. Competitive benefits for our employees generally include professional liability and workers compensation insurance, a 401(k) plan, health insurance, reimbursed travel, per diem allowances, and housing.

Recruiters are an essential element of our Nurse and Allied Staffing business and are responsible for establishing and maintaining key relationships with candidates for the duration of their assignments. Leveraging our database of clinicians, recruiters match the supply of qualified candidates with the demand for open orders from customers. While word-of-mouth and referrals, especially from current and former healthcare professionals we have placed, continue as our leading channel of access to candidates, we also market our brands through strategic sourcing initiatives including programmatic strategic sourcing and extensive utilization of social media and mobile applications, which have become an increasingly important component of our recruitment efforts. In addition to maintaining engaging and intuitive websites to allow potential applicants to obtain information about the Company and assignment opportunities, we further enhanced Cross Country Marketplace, our proprietary mobile on-demand staffing platform, as a one-stop, self-

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service portal to support candidates throughout their experience with Cross Country. Our self-service candidate portal, known as XperienceTM, provides our travel and allied healthcare professionals with real-time matching to open positions.

Physician Staffing. Cross Country Locums recruits and contracts with physicians and advanced practice professionals to provide medical services for its healthcare customers. We offer a wide variety of assignments, competitive fees, medical malpractice insurance, and a high level of service. Physicians or advanced practice professionals are independent contractors (unless prohibited by applicable law) and enter into agreements with Cross Country Locums to provide medical services at a particular healthcare facility or physician practice group based on terms and conditions specified by that customer, for assignments ranging from a few days to up to one year.

(2)Sales and Marketing. We take an enterprise sales approach by marketing our full capabilities across the continuum of care to hospitals, healthcare facilities, schools, PACE programs, and other organizations across the U.S. addressing total talent management needs. We provide flexible workforce solutions to the healthcare, education, and PACE markets customizing delivery of diversified offerings to meet the specific needs of each customer.

Our delivery brands include Cross Country Nurses®, Cross Country Allied®, Cross Country Local®, formerly known as Cross Country Medical Staffing Network®, Cross Country Search®, Cross Country Locums®, Cross Country Community Care, formerly known as Cross Country Workforce Solutions Group®, Cross Country Education®, and Intellify® Talent Solutions. Our recruiters leverage the Company’s extensive databases of clinicians and healthcare professionals, as well as their expertise in their given specialties, to qualify and place healthcare candidates.

(3)Credentialing and Quality Management. We screen all of our healthcare employees prior to placement through our credentialing departments. Our credentialing processes are designed to ensure that professionals have the requisite skill sets required by our customers, as well as the aptitude to meet the day-to-day requirements and challenges they would typically encounter on assignments where they are placed. The credentialing of our nurse and allied healthcare professionals is designed to ensure quality of care and align with the guidelines of The Joint Commission, a national accrediting body.

(4)Billing and Payment for Services. Our shared service center processes hours worked by field employees in various time and attendance systems, which in turn generate billable transactions to our customers. Hours worked by independent contractor physicians are reported to our Cross Country Locums office. Billing for other services such as RPO, Search, or Project Management vary depending on the contract, but typically are invoiced upon the success of achieving agreed upon milestones or completion of specific deliverables, such as the placement of a candidate. On occasion, we are able to bill for the reimbursement of certain expenses incurred, such as candidate marketing costs, or set-up fees incurred for certain projects, such as travel costs for internal staff.

(5)Operations. Our businesses are operated through a relatively centralized model, servicing all assignment needs of our healthcare professionals, physicians, and customer facilities, as well as support activities, such as coordinating housing, payroll processing, benefits administration, billing and collections, travel reimbursement processing, customer service, and risk management. These activities are performed by a predominantly remote work team, in addition to a few corporate offices.

(6)Information Systems. Various information systems are utilized to run customer relationship management, recruitment, and placement functions based on our different brands. Some of these sophisticated applications are proprietary and are hosted in Tier 1 hosting facilities while other systems are SaaS-based and hosted by vendor partners. Our systems maintain detailed information about customer-required skill sets and status, which assists us in enabling fulfillment and assignment renewals. Our databases contain an extensive pool of existing and potential customers and all related recruitment and sales activity. Our financial and human resource systems are housed on enterprise resource planning software suites that manage certain aspects of accounts payable, accounts receivable, general ledger, billing, and human capital management. We manage our information systems with internal team members located both in the U.S. and in India. Cybersecurity remains a central focus point across our organization, including dedicated resources, iterative training for all employees, and third parties engaged to assist in monitoring and managing systems and devices, detecting cyber threats, and preventing breaches. See further discussion in the section titled "Item 1C - Cybersecurity."

(7)Risk Management, Insurance, and Benefits. Our risk management program is designed to ensure prompt notification of incidents, educational training to our employees, loss analysis, and timely reporting procedures to reduce our risk of exposure. We continuously review facts and incidents associated with professional liability and

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workers’ compensation claims in order to identify trends and reduce our risk of loss in the future where possible. We consider assessments provided by our customers, and we work with clinicians and experts from our insurance carriers to determine employment eligibility and potential exposure.

We provide workers’ compensation insurance coverage, professional liability coverage, and healthcare benefits for our eligible employed professionals. We record estimates of the ultimate cost of, and reserves for, workers’ compensation and professional liability benefits based on actuarial models prepared or reviewed by an independent actuary using our loss history as well as industry statistics, and include reserves for estimated claims incurred but not reported. On a quarterly basis, we estimate the healthcare claims that have occurred but have not been reported based on our historical claim submission patterns. The ultimate cost of workers’ compensation, professional liability, and health insurance claims will depend on actual amounts incurred to settle those claims and may differ from the amounts reserved for such claims.

The Company maintains a number of insurance policies including general liability, workers’ compensation, fidelity, employment practices liability, fiduciary, directors and officers, cyber, property, and professional liability policies. These policies provide coverage for certain liabilities that may arise from our operations, subject to the policy’s terms, conditions, limits of liability, and deductibles. Any of the above policies may not be adequate for our needs, or we may not maintain all such policies in the future.

Services

We are increasingly called upon by our customers to provide creative and innovative talent sourcing strategies across a continuum of care. Over the past several years, our workforce solutions have evolved into a total talent management approach as our customers focus on maintaining high-quality patient outcomes, while improving their total labor management to address complex financial, compliance, and other challenges within the healthcare industry. As part of this total talent management approach, we consider the following: (i) solving the immediate and future needs of our customers; (ii) enhancing our network of healthcare professionals by improving their experience; (iii) expanding service offerings to reduce sensitivity to economic cycles; (iv) expanding our expertise with various healthcare solutions in various geographic areas of the U.S.; (v) continuing to diversify our customer base to enhance long-term business prospects; and (vi) enhancing and expanding technology to deliver efficient and automated services to customer facilities. Our workforce solutions include:

•MSP. As healthcare providers continue to adopt centralized, outsourced models for managing contingent labor for both clinical and non-clinical needs, we offer an MSP in which we manage all or a portion of the customer’s staffing needs. This includes both the placement of our own healthcare professionals and the utilization of other staffing agencies. The benefits to our MSP customers include cost optimization, increased certainty of supply, visibility into labor needs and usage, and market insight from our industry expertise on a broad range of topics. We have converted close to 100% of our MSPs onto Intellify®, our SaaS-based, proprietary, vendor management system that provides analytics and real-time insights, with industry-leading dashboards and reporting.

•Vendor Neutral Program. We also provide a vendor management system through our Intellify® platform which also includes the placement of our professionals or a menu of various other services. The benefits of our vendor neutral solution include control over the staffing program and suppliers, cost optimization, and visibility into labor needs and usage.

•Home-Based Staffing. Our Cross Country Community Care division is a premier provider in clinical and non-clinical staffing for home health and senior care facilities, including Federally Qualified Health Centers (FQHCs), Community Health Centers (CHCs), and PACE centers, allowing aging populations to remain in their homes as long as clinically advisable. We are a full-service partner, with market expertise and a breadth of services, including contingent staffing, consulting, human capital, management solutions, recruitment process outsourcing, vendor management, and direct hiring.

•Education Healthcare Services. Through Cross Country Education, we focus our knowledge and resources on engaging with and understanding educational organizations, industry trends, and leadership challenges. We provide a wide range of services to our educational partners to meet their individual needs, including special education providers, substitute teachers, behavioral aides, speech language pathologists, and occupational therapists, among others. We also fulfill HR-related tasks, alleviating human resource and administrative paperwork so school administrators can focus on student success.

•RPO Services. Through our RPO services, we offer targeted recruitment solutions designed to increase core staff while reducing dependency on contract labor. Our RPO program provides support to replace or complement a customer’s existing internal recruitment functions for permanent hiring needs and is delivered to healthcare organizations throughout the country and serves to provide creative, cost and operationally efficient hiring support and labor optimization, which leads to improvements in quality of care.

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•Project Management. Periodically, our customers have urgent needs that fall outside the scope of an MSP arrangement and require a more focused effort to place staff within a very short window. For example, as healthcare systems continue to upgrade their electronic medical records or encounter a labor disruption, we can provide comprehensive project management, deployment of a full staffing plan, and ultimately an organized volume of quality healthcare professionals during the process so that customers may continue to deliver quality care.

•Executive, Interim Leadership, and Contingent Search. We specialize in placing interim and permanent professionals across all levels, including clinical, executive, and administrative functions. Our recruitment services are available on both a retained and contingent basis, with performance-based success fees upon every placement.

•Other Services. We offer other value-added services such as IRP Consulting & Development. These services seek to augment our customer’s capabilities with managing, supplementing, and outsourcing aspects of their internal processes of managing their workforce.

Our Geographic Markets and Customer Base

In 2025, 2024, and 2023, our revenue was generated in the U.S., and all of our long-lived assets were located in the U.S. and India. We provide our staffing services and workforce solutions in all 50 states. During 2025, the largest percentage of our revenue was concentrated in California, Florida, and New York. We provide services to public and private acute care and non-acute care hospitals, outpatient clinics, ambulatory care facilities, single and multi-specialty physician practices, rehabilitation facilities, PACE programs, urgent care centers, public and charter schools, correctional facilities, government facilities, retailers, and many other healthcare providers. For the years ended December 31, 2025, 2024, and 2023, no customer accounted for more than 10% of our revenue.

Our Industry

We compete in the U.S. temporary healthcare staffing and workforce solutions markets. Staffing Industry Analysts’ September 2025 report estimates the 2025 healthcare staffing markets had an aggregate market size of $39.4 billion, of which $14.2 billion was travel nursing, $4.5 billion was per diem nursing, $9.8 billion was allied health, and $9.6 billion was locum tenens and advanced practitioners. The demand for our services is impacted by many factors, of which we believe the most significant are the following:

Supply and Demand Drivers

Healthcare Backdrop. According to the Staffing Industry Analysts’ “US Staffing Industry Pulse Survey Report” (November 2025), no segment reported a year-over-year decline, though travel nursing, per diem nursing, and direct hire were flat as compared to the prior year. Median revenue growth was greatest in locum tenens, up 5%. Staffing Industry Analysts’ “US Staffing Industry Forecast: September 2025 Update” (September 2, 2025) forecasts moderate continued expansion in the locum tenens segment, in part due to persistent physician shortages, with a moderate decline in the allied healthcare segment and the per diem nurse segment in 2025, followed by a modest expansion in both segments in 2026. The travel nurse segment is forecasted to contract for the third consecutive year before experiencing slight growth in 2026, although recovery will be slow with bill rates remaining under pressure. According to the most recent Bureau of Labor Statistics 10-year projections (August 28, 2025), overall, employment is expected to grow 3.1% annually, with the healthcare and social assistance sector having the largest growth of 8.4% annually. Within healthcare, healthcare support occupations and healthcare practitioners and technical occupations are projected to be among the fastest growing of all occupational groups, growing 12.4% and 7.2%, respectively, from 2024 to 2034. Employment growth in the healthcare and social assistance sector is expected to be primarily driven by both the aging population and the growing prevalence of chronic conditions.

Supply of Nurses. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics’ Occupational Outlook Handbook (August 28, 2025), employment of registered nurses is projected to grow 5%, or 166,100, from 2024 to 2034, faster than the average for all occupations. The registered nurse workforce is expected to grow from 3.4 million in 2024 to 3.6 million in 2034. The Bureau of Labor Statistics also projects the need for an additional 189,100 new registered nurses each year, on average, through 2034, factoring in nurse retirements and workforce exits.

Physician Shortage. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics’ Occupational Outlook Handbook (August 28, 2025), employment of physicians and surgeons is projected to grow 3% from 2024 to 2034, about as fast as the average for all occupations. About 23,600 openings for physicians and surgeons are projected each year, on average, over the decade. According to the Association of American Medical Colleges’ (AAMC) “Addressing the Physician Workforce Shortage” (March 2024), the United States faces a projected physician shortage of up to 86,000 by 2036. Population

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growth and aging, exacerbated by older physicians who will be retiring soon, serve as the primary drivers of increasing demand for physician services.

Increased Need for Healthcare and Special Education Services in Schools. According to the U.S. Department of Education, National Center for Education Statistics projections, during 2025, the number of students ages three to twenty-one who received special education services under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) was approximately 7.9 million, or approximately 15% of all public school students. IDEA requires that these children and young adults receive care from speech language pathologists, physical therapists, occupational therapists, nurses, and other healthcare professionals while at school.

Macro Drivers of Demand. According to Insider Intelligence, eMarketer, "The aging US population is creating many problems - especially regarding elderly healthcare issues" (January 1, 2023), by 2030, one out of every five U.S. citizens will be of retirement age. Every baby boomer will be 65 or older and the oldest close to 85. The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services estimates that a person turning 65 today has a 70% chance of requiring long-term care services at some point. As the massive baby boomer generation ages, demand for nursing facilities will continue to climb. According to a survey by the American Health Care Association and National Center for Assisted Living, 94% of nursing homes deal with staffing shortages, and 46% limit new admissions due to workforce issues.

As an alternative to address these challenges, PACE, a Medicare/Medicaid at-home care program, was created for older adults and people over age 55 living with disabilities. This program provides community-based care and services to people who otherwise would need nursing home levels of care. An Aging in Place study showed that 70% of respondents preferred to age at home. The focus of every PACE organization is to help individuals live in the community for as long as possible. To meet this goal, these organizations focus on preventive care. According to the National PACE Association (NPA), seniors over the age of 65 represent 83% of its members, and 17% of its members are between the ages of 55 and 64. Although all people enrolled in this program are eligible for nursing home care, less than 5% live in nursing homes. On average, states pay PACE programs 12% less than the cost of caring for a comparable population through other Medicaid services, including nursing homes.

New developments with PACE include significant state-level expansion, federal pushes for growth (i.e. veterans’ access and rural grants), new CMS regulations for 2025 impacting Medicare Advantage integration, and a growing focus on leveraging PACE to save costs and serve more seniors through strategic partnerships, with ongoing efforts to streamline operations and address workforce challenges.

Competition

As one of the largest providers of workforce solutions and healthcare staffing in the U.S., Cross Country operates on a national, regional, and local basis in a highly competitive industry for both healthcare customers and healthcare professionals. In general, we compete against other national companies, as well as numerous smaller, regional, and local companies.

The principal competitive factors in attracting, retaining, and expanding business with healthcare customers nationally include: (i) understanding the customer’s environment; (ii) offering a comprehensive suite of services to assist in assessing personnel needs; (iii) partnering with customers to design various customizable alternative solutions; (iv) timely filling of customers’ needs; (v) price; (vi) customer service; (vii) quality assurance and screening capabilities; (viii) risk management policies; (ix) insurance coverage; and (x) general industry reputation.

Through our breadth of and expertise in value-added workforce solutions and tech-enabled services, we have the ability to meet a national shift towards a more integrated delivery of healthcare, which allows us to assist hospitals and health systems turning to lower-cost, more accessible alternatives, such as outpatient or ambulatory care centers. In today’s environment, healthcare systems are seeking alternatives to lower costs, with a trend towards vendor neutral and tech-enabled platforms. Our technology solutions, such as Intellify®, help our customers better manage their spend. By offering travel, per diem, and permanent placement for a variety of healthcare professionals, we are able to present many different types of personnel to hospitals and health systems at their main campuses and their ambulatory and outpatient facilities.

The principal competitive factors in attracting qualified healthcare professionals for temporary employment include: (i) a large national pool of desirable assignments; (ii) pay and benefits; (iii) speed of placements; (iv) customer service; (v) quality of accommodations; and (vi) overall industry reputation. We focus on retaining healthcare professionals by providing high-quality customer service, long-term benefits (to employees), and medical malpractice insurance.

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From a candidate attraction standpoint, we have an extensive customer base with hospitals, healthcare facilities, and other healthcare providers throughout the U.S. As a result, we have a diverse portfolio of assignments for healthcare professionals to choose from. Healthcare professionals apply with us through our differentiated nursing, locum tenens, and allied healthcare recruitment brands. We believe our access to such a large and varied group of healthcare professionals makes us more attractive to healthcare institutions and facilities seeking healthcare staffing and workforce solutions in the current marketplace. Our applicant tracking system for our travel nurse and allied professionals business provides a world-class candidate experience. Our self-service candidate portal, XperienceTM, provides travel and allied professionals with real-time matching to open positions.

Staffing Industry Analysts recognized Cross Country Healthcare as a leading healthcare staffing firm in the U.S., with 3.0% market share in 2024. We rank as one of the largest firms in travel nurse staffing, per diem nurse staffing, allied healthcare staffing, and locum tenens. Some of our traditional competitors in the workforce solutions, healthcare staffing, and search businesses include: Aya Healthcare, Medical Solutions, AMN Healthcare Services, CHG Healthcare Services, Amergis, Jackson Healthcare, Ingenovis Health, Hallmark Healthcare Staffing, RightSourcing, American Healthcare Services Association, Favorite Staffing, GHR Healthcare, SimpliFi, and HealthTrust Workforce Solutions (HCA). The market continues to evolve with new competitors entering the industry as barriers to entry are fairly low, especially for other non-clinical staffing companies.

Seasonality

The number of healthcare professionals on assignment with us is subject to seasonal fluctuations which may impact quarterly revenue and earnings. Hospital patient census and staffing needs of hospital and healthcare facilities may fluctuate, for example, during flu season. This seasonality of revenue and earnings may vary due to a variety of factors and the results of any one quarter are not necessarily indicative of the results to be expected for any other quarter or for any year.

Certifications

Our staffing businesses brands are certified by The Joint Commission under its Health Care Staffing Services Certification Program. The Joint Commission is the recognized global leader for healthcare accreditation. Certification promotes a culture of excellence across the organization and is recognized nationwide as a symbol of quality that reflects an organization’s commitment to meeting certain performance standards. Cross Country is the first publicly traded staffing firm to obtain The Joint Commission Certification, which it still holds with a Letter of Distinction. In 2025, the Company was once again certified by The Joint Commission with no deficiencies.

Regulations

Our business is subject to regulations by numerous governmental authorities in the jurisdictions in which we operate throughout the U.S. Complex federal and state laws and regulations govern, among other things, the licensure of professionals, the payment of our employees (e.g., wage and hour laws, employment taxes, and income tax withholdings), state licensing and reporting requirements, privacy, and our general operations, which may be amended from time to time. Future federal and state legislation or interpretations thereof may require us to change our business practices. Compliance with all of these applicable rules and regulations requires a significant amount of resources. We endeavor to be in compliance with all such rules and regulations.

Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR)

The Company's Board of Directors (Board) regularly meets with management to discuss CSR-related topics.

CSR Overview - 2025 Highlights:

•We remain steadfast in our commitment to accelerate employability and access to career growth, continue to be a preferred employer, partner with our customers, and drive positive social impacts.

•Our approach is informed by topics assessed as critical to the business by internal and external stakeholders such as, but not limited to, strong corporate governance, risk oversight and management, business ethics, talent attraction and retention, career development, training and education, safety, health and wellness, technology innovation, and access to quality healthcare.

•Our Board has full responsibility for risk oversight, which occurs at the full Board level and at committees assigned critical risks. The CEO and executive leadership are responsible for alignment of CSR commitments and business strategy. Senior management outlines programs and assigns resources to support CSR commitments and mitigate risk.

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Executive leadership reports to and consults with both the Board and Board committees regularly to assess CSR risks and program performance.

•We aim to accelerate employability and continue to be a preferred employer for candidates by connecting them to positions that are meaningful and conducive to career growth through our XperienceTM technology. We continue to support healthcare professionals’ needs through a 24/7 hotline, specialized teams, and education and training tuition discount opportunities.

•We are committed to supporting our communities through several charities. We remain a loyal supporter of the American Red Cross, Leukemia and Lymphoma Society, American Heart Association, Random Acts of Flowers, Alzheimer’s Association, American Rivers, and Mission 22, among others.

•In 2025, Employee Communities have offered insights and support to their members and promoted meaningful advances, based on Cross Country Culture Pillars of Education & Empowerment, Community & Belonging, Health & Wellness, and Innovation & Technology.

Awards. Cross Country was named to the ClearlyRated Best of Staffing awards for all divisions for client, employees, and talent. We have recently been recognized with a Best Company Culture Work-Life Balance and Best Company for Leadership, among others, from Comparably, and were named in the 2024 Best Companies to Work For on U.S. News & World Report’s list. Cross Country has received the Industry Award for Healthcare 2025 by Energage Top Workplaces, along with Top Workplaces LA.

Corporate Governance. We believe a framework that supports integrity and high ethical standards is key to the long-term success of our business. This framework is the foundation of trust with employees, customers and vendors and is of the utmost importance in all that we do. The Board oversees the Company’s enterprise risk management function to help ensure that communication among the Board, its committees and management on risk, strategic, sustainability, cybersecurity, and other matters is open, continuous, and robust.

Human Capital Management

As of December 31, 2025, we had approximately 1,106 corporate employees. During 2025, we employed an average of 6,784 full-time equivalent field employees in Nurse and Allied Staffing, which does not include our Physician Staffing independent contractors.

Our goal is to provide work conditions that enable employees to thrive in an environment that is healthy and reduces hazards and health and safety issues, as well as raising awareness on health and safety risks related to our business activities. We believe this drives employee retention and performance, thus allowing us to retain a healthy productive team. As part of our health and safety program, we partner with employees to help them maintain both their physical and mental welfare by providing education on health topics, facilitating complementary health screenings, and offering resources that include a confidential support line. Our culture is infused with a growth mindset that encourages employee internal progression and retention through an array of learning and coaching resources. Employees are held to the ethics standards set forth in our Code of Ethics policy, which also applies to vendors and suppliers. We aim to foster a sound, respectful, fair, and inclusive workplace and condemn all forms of unlawful and inappropriate conduct, such as violence, discrimination, intimidation, harassment, and any behavior that creates a hostile or coercive work environment. In 2025, Cross Country Healthcare was awarded Great Place to Work® certification for a fifth year and named in the Best Companies to Work for - South 2024-2025 List by U.S. News & World Report.

Our ability to be successful in our marketplace directly depends on attracting and retaining talented and skilled employees, and keeping those individuals fully engaged in our business. Through our adoption of a Human Rights and Labor Rights Policy guided by the International Labour Organization Declaration on Fundamental Principles, our goal is to help increase the enjoyment of human rights within the communities in which we operate. This policy sets forth our intolerance of discrimination and harassment, our employees’ freedom of association, and the importance we place on the safety and health of our employees.

Compensation and Benefits. We are committed to rewarding, supporting, and developing the associates who make it possible to deliver on our strategy. To that end, we offer a comprehensive total rewards program aimed at the varying health, home-life, and financial needs of our corporate associates. Our total corporate rewards package includes market-competitive pay, healthcare benefits, retirement savings plans, paid time off and family leave, various discount programs, and tuition assistance.

Health and Wellness. We are committed to the physical and mental health and well-being of our employees. Among other things, we are primarily a remote workforce. We provide free biometric healthcare screenings, a 24/7 hotline for healthcare workers who are experiencing emotional stress, and incentives to employees who achieve specific fitness goals through our “Burnalong” wellness challenge. Our wellness activity calendar features weekly and monthly events and educational sessions to

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help employees reach and maintain their health and wellness goals. Monthly well-being newsletters focus on physical, mental, and financial wellness topics of interest. We also mark one or more health observances every month, such as heart health, high blood pressure awareness, men’s health, children’s dental health, and more, which provide additional resources for employees to educate themselves and their families. We believe the health and well-being of our employees has a direct impact on the quality of the services they deliver, and we continue to support them through providing the Compassion Fund for corporate employees suffering financial hardships, offering a paid volunteer day off for corporate employees to serve our communities, providing a psychologist and group therapy as needed, and providing a SaaS-based platform to all of our employees, and up to four family members, for free so they can stay connected through a universe of classes (e.g., yoga, language, psychology, and many others).

Talent Development. Our mission regarding talent management and development is to support organizational results and success by employing strategies to attract, engage, develop, and retain employees, and to partner with our leaders to nurture and grow leadership talent. These investments include providing clear insight into employee performance, creating career paths, promoting from within whenever possible, maintaining open communication, and offering professional development opportunities. We employ Dayforce, a human resources system which features a fully interactive learning management module, where employees can access professional development resources, such as skills training courses. We offer Career Pathing, a system that allows employees to create a path to help guide their career development and growth within the Company. We partner with Strayer University, Excelsior University, and Capella University to provide our employees with access to flexible degree programs at a discounted cost. In 2023, we launched an enterprise mentorship program and a new career pathing program called Cross Country University. Through our Innovation Challenge held in 2022 through 2024, employees voiced original ideas to improve our operations with the chance to win a monetary award. We have also embraced the Nursing Now pledge by reinforcing investment in the workforce, continuing to promote nurses to management roles, and providing guidance and support on best nursing practices through our dedicated clinical team. Nursing Now is a global campaign aimed at improving health by raising the status and profile of nursing.

Community and Social Impact. We participate in numerous events with a variety of non-profit organizations. Our mission to deliver quality patient care extends to our community and we are committed to action that fosters positive impact in our community and around the U.S. Our human resources department develops and implements programs to help our employees realize their potential through volunteering and supporting our communities. Employees are able to take paid time off to perform volunteer activities, and are able to donate to certain charities directly from their pay, either as a one-time or ongoing donation.

Additional Information

Financial reports and filings with the SEC, including this Annual Report on Form 10-K, are available free of charge as soon as reasonably practicable after filing such material with, or furnishing it to, the SEC, on or through our corporate website at www.crosscountry.com. References to websites contained in this Annual Report on Form 10-K are intended to be inactive textual references only. The information found on our website is not part of this Annual Report on Form 10-K or any other report we file with or furnish to the SEC. The SEC also maintains a website at www.sec.gov that contains reports, proxy and information statements, and other information regarding issuers that file electronically with the SEC.