On January 1st, the use of background checks for home-health workers expanded due to new legislative and administrative rules. The Ohio Attorney General’s Office’s Medicaid Fraud division was concerned with inconsistencies in regulations, so new rules were enacted to strengthen the checks and create consistent standards across different state agencies. Prior to this, a criminal act could be disqualifying in one agency but not in another.
Important changes to the use of background checks include:
- employees must be re-checked every 5 years
- more state and national databases must be searched, including registries that list sex offenders, inmates and abusive caregivers
- the checks now apply for care recipients who are neither elderly nor minor.
Home health agencies are concerned with the cost of these additional background checks. The cost for the background checks increased to $28 per check, and there is an estimated amount of 23,000 to 24,000 employees in Ohio who have been employed five years or longer.