Creating Criminal
Background Checks for Eldercare Employees Kicks Off in Six States
CMS awards over
$13 million of $160 million in first round of designing program long
championed by Sen. Kohl of Senate aging committee
Oct. 7, 2010 -
In a move aimed at combating abuse and neglect in the nation’s long-term
care facilities, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS)
has awarded more than $13.8 million to six states to design
comprehensive applicant criminal background check programs for jobs
involving direct patient care.
The first round
of states to participate in the program was announced yesterday and includes: Alaska ($1.5M),
Connecticut ($2.0M), Delaware ($3.0M), Florida ($3.0M), Missouri ($3.0M)
and Rhode Island ($1.3M).
An additional 11
states applied and may be funded beginning in October or November. CMS
will also issue a second solicitation in October for those states that
did not apply but may still do so.
The new law set
aside $160 million for the program, which is to run through September
2012, an amount sufficient to enable all states to participate.
"More states
should take advantage of this grant funding, and I am thankful to CMS
for extending the deadline in order to allow that to happen," said
Senator Herb Kohl (D-WI), Chairman of the Senate Special Committee on
Aging, and a long-time champion of the criminal background check
program.
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"We have a great
deal of hard evidence that background checks for long-term care workers
protects lives, and I urge CMS to take a proactive role in providing
states with assistance they need to expand and improve their background
check screening systems."
The national
background check for each prospective direct patient care employee must
include a criminal history search of both state and federal abuse and
neglect registries and databases, such as the Nurse Aide Registry or FBI
files.
Long-term care
facilities or providers covered under the new program include nursing
facilities, home health agencies, hospice providers, long-term care
hospitals, and intermediate care facilities for persons with mental
retardation, and other entities that provide long-term care services.
“Elder abuse
and neglect is tragic and intolerable,” said HHS Secretary Kathleen
Sebelius. “Workers with a history of abuse or neglect should be
identified and prevented from ever working with residents of these
facilities
“The new health
care law will help states identify the best, most effective ways to
determine which applicants can be trusted with the health and safety of
residents and which cannot,” said Donald M. Berwick, M.D., CMS
administrator.
Created by the
Affordable Care Act, the new National Background Check Program will help
identify “best practices” for long-term care providers to determine
whether a job seeker has any kind of criminal history or other
disqualifying information that could make him or her unsuitable to work
directly with residents.
The health
reform legislation signed into law in March created the grant program
but it is based on the Patient Safety and Abuse Prevention Act (S. 631),
policy that was consistently pushed by Senator Kohl and was embedded in
Title VI, Part III, Subtitle C, Section 6201 of the Patient Protection
and Affordable Care Act.
How will older Americans on Medicare be affected by health care reform?” Video
from American Heart Association
While a vast
majority of long-term care workers are caring and dedicated individuals,
thousands of people with a history of substantiated abuse or a criminal
record are hired every year to work closely with frail seniors within
our nation's nursing homes and other long-term care facilities,
according to Sen. Kohl.
Because the
current system of background checks is haphazard, inconsistent, and full
of gaping holes in many states, predators can easily evade detection
during the hiring process, securing jobs that allow them to assault,
abuse, and steal from defenseless elders.
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To stop this
abuse, the provisions included in health reform expand a highly
successful pilot program in seven states that was spearheaded by Kohl
and authorized under the 2003 Medicare Modernization Act. That pilot
program was found to prevent more than 7,000 applicants with a history
of substantiated abuse or a violent criminal record from being hired to
work with - and potentially prey upon - frail elders and individuals
with disabilities receiving long-term care services.
In addition to
providing funding for states to establish coordinated systems that
include checks against multiple abuse and neglect registries and a state
police check, the policy also requires that applicants be checked
against the FBI's national database of criminal history records.
Oct. 7, 2010 -
In a move aimed at combating abuse and neglect in the nation’s long-term
care facilities, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS)
has awarded more than $13.8 million to six states to design
comprehensive applicant criminal background check programs for jobs
involving direct patient care.
