§41105 Criminal Background Checks for Applicants for Employment in Nursing Facilities and Home Health Care Agencies

Summary

Nursing homes and home health agencies can ask the Attorney General to run an FBI criminal-record check on job applicants who will do direct patient care. To do this, the facility must send the applicant’s fingerprints, a signed authorization from the applicant, and other ID to the Attorney General through the proper State agency within 7 days after getting those items (not counting Saturdays, Sundays, and federal public holidays listed in section 6103(a) of title 5). The Attorney General will check the FBI’s Criminal Justice Information Services records and give any matching results to the State agency designated to receive them. The information can be used only by the facility that asked for it and only to decide if the person is suitable for direct patient care. The Attorney General may charge a fee up to $50 per request. Anyone who knowingly uses the information for the wrong purpose can be fined under title 18, jailed for up to 2 years, or both. A facility that reasonably relies on the Attorney General’s information when denying a job is protected from lawsuits about incomplete or inaccurate data. The Attorney General may make rules to carry out this process. The law required a report to Congress within 2 years after October 21, 1998, on how many checks were requested and what happened to them. A home health care agency provides care or personal help by visiting people in their homes. A nursing facility mainly gives nursing and skilled nursing care and related services to people who need medical or nursing care. This rule applies without any fiscal year limit.