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WASHINGTON – The Department of Health and Human Services’ Office of the Inspector General has issued a report indicating more than 90 percent of nursing facilities in the nation has employed at least one person with one criminal conviction.
Industry observers say the number of employees with criminal backgrounds is not unusual and the report’s data is undependable. According to the National Employment Law Project, one in three adults in the United States has a criminal record. And turnover at nursing facilities is so high, it’s not a stretch to assume some people with criminal records will become employed in them.
“These are difficult-to-fill jobs for low pay and low benefits,” said Wayne Anderson, senior health analyst at RTI, a nonprofit research agency. “They are hard jobs – some of the hardest work anyone does.”
“The report says that 92 percent of nursing facilities employed at least one individual with at least one criminal conviction, which is not that startling given the fact that a criminal conviction generally means the defendant was given a sentence beyond a mere warning,” said Debra Yergen, an executive coach and author of the “Creating Job Security Resource Guide.” “Under this classification, numerous acts born out of bad judgment … can result in having a criminal record.”
The records from the FBI, the report states, may not have had the most accurate and current data available and did not contain detailed information, which makes the report “a little flawed,” said Dianne De La Mare, vice president of regulatory affairs of the American Health Care Association, an organization representing long-term and post-acute care providers nationwide.
The OIG gathered the names of more than 35,000 nursing home employees from a random sampling of 256 nursing facilities, then compared that data with criminal history records obtained from the FBI.
Federal law does not require nursing facilities to conduct state or FBI background checks, although many states have background check regulations. By federal law, nursing facilities receiving Medicaid or Medicare funds are prohibited from hiring employees found guilty of abusing, neglecting or mistreating residents.
The OIG report states that most of the criminal convictions happened before the employees were employed at a nursing facility and that they were most often for crimes such as shoplifting and writing bad checks.
“Our nursing providers try very hard to find people gaming the system,” De La Mare said.
The AHCA recommends a national background check program that would apply to the entire healthcare system, so that people can’t hide as they move from state to state.
The creation of a national background check program for direct patient access employees of long-term care facilities and providers is one of the provisions of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act. The OIG’s report recommends the development of background check procedures that would provide consistency in that program.