|
Indiana, like many states, requires home health providers to check employees’ criminal backgrounds before hiring them or, within a very brief time frame after hiring. If an individual has one of the convictions listed in the statute, the agency cannot hire him. However, this is not a blanket rule against hiring for any position. In Indiana, the statute only prohibits hiring for what I will call “direct care positions”. If you wanted to hire an individual with a theft conviction to be on your sales staff, the statute would not prohibit you from doing that.
There is another interesting angle to the statute. Although theft is a disqualifying conviction, fraud and forgery are not disqualifying convictions. This means you could hire someone with a fraud or forgery conviction for a direct care position without fear of being cited by ISDH.
You should keep in mind that your clinical staff completes the paperwork you submit in order to receive reimbursement from each of your payor sources. It might cause you some restless nights to think that this paperwork is being completed by an individual with a fraud or forgery conviction.
This is why the OIG compliance plan, for home health agencies, suggests that HHAs should strictly scrutinize whether it should employ individuals who have been convicted of crimes of neglect, violence or financial misconduct. I would broaden that even more to include crimes of financial misconduct or dishonesty. This would include everything from embezzlement to fraud and forgery. My reasoning is pretty straightforward.
If an employee falsifies documentation for a visit, the agency will, at a minimum, have to pay back the money. Not to mention the harm to the agency’s reputation for not performing visits for clients. By screening employees for convictions involving not just theft, but deceit and/or financial misconduct, the agency is at least making an effort to not put individuals into a position that requires trust and honesty. This at least lowers the risk of false Medicare or Medicaid claims.
As with theft, a conviction of this nature may not need to be an absolute bar. If the conviction for financial conduct or deceit was very old, and the record has been clean since then, the individual may not pose as substantial a risk. The key consideration is that you realize all of the potential risks that a criminal background check shows you.
|
|
News
Health Care
[08/15] Catalyst Pharmaceutical Partners Reports Second Quarter 2008 Financial Results
[08/15] Salmonella outbreak winds down; questions remain
[08/15] 6 get Legionnaires' disease in upstate NY; 1 dies
[08/15] NYC heroes lift bus off pregnant woman; baby saved
[08/15] NYC heroes lift bus off pregnant woman; baby saved
[08/15] Former half-ton man endures hard times in Nebraska
[08/15] AP Interview: Doctor behind executions speaks out
[08/14] University Hospitals Receives $22.6 Million Donation from Harrington and McLaughlin Families
[08/14] The National Kidney Foundation's 7th Annual Ronald D. Paul Companies Kidney Walk to be Held on Saturday, September 20
[08/14] Best Practice Database adds Research on New Product Launch
Read More
Web Resources
FindLaw
Thomson West
U.S. Courts
Westlaw
United States Chamber of Commerce
FirstGov
Legislative Branch
Library of Congress
White House
Internal Revenue Service
National Weather Service
Yahoo!Maps
YellowPages.com
New York Times
Newspapers Online
USA Today
Wall Street Journal
AOL
Google
Yahoo!Legal Blog Directory
|
