Nursing Facilities' Employment of Individuals With Criminal Convictions

摘要

A member of Congress requested that the Office of Inspector General (OIG) undertake this evaluation. Federal regulation prohibits Medicare and Medicaid nursing facilities from employing individuals found guilty of abusing, neglecting, or mistreating residents by a court of law, or who have had a finding entered into the State nurse aide registry concerning abuse, neglect, or mistreatment of residents or misappropriation of their property. Interpretive guidelines from the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) for this regulation state that (nursing) facilities must be thorough in their investigations of the past histories of individuals they are considering hiring. However, Federal law does not require that nursing facilities conduct State or Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) criminal background checks. State background check requirements vary in terms of what must be checked (e.g., statewide criminal history databases, publically available sex offender registries) and who must be checked (e.g., direct-care workers only, all staff).