Oklahoma Long Term Care National Background Check Program from the Oklahoma State Department of Health (Full details of program link)
- In April of 2011, the Oklahoma State Department of Health (OSDH) was awarded a grant from the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) of $2.6 million dollars to cover 75% of the costs for the exploration and development of a fingerprint based national background check program. In conjunction with our LTC industry partners, House Bill 2582 passed with an effective date of November 1, 2012.The law authorized staggered implementation through rulemaking.
- OSDH partnered with provider groups in the long-term care (LTC) industry, the Oklahoma Department of Human Services (DHS), and the Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation (OSBI) to review current laws and rules applicable to the background check process, industry practice, and finance models for funding a fingerprint based background check program.
- These efforts resulted in HB2582 which was introduced and passed with an effective date of November 1, 2012.
- The legislation creates statutory authority to implement a fingerprint based National Background Check for certain classes of LTC providers.
- The legislation authorizes fingerprint based background checks on all future direct patient access employees of LTC facilities and providers.
- The program will rely on a web portal for registry screening and employment eligibility status.
- Providers will have an account on the OK-SCREEN web portal.
- Authorization for fingerprinting comes after registries are reviewed from the web portal
- Providers can screen applicants on multiple registries from the web portal
- More training and support for the portal are coming.
- Applicants who are cleared on the registries are authorized for either fingerprinting or an immediate eligibility determination
- New hires will have a continuously monitored criminal history and will not require re-fingerprinting when changing employers within the industry
- A provider pays $19 for the initial fingerprinting or to enroll the eligible applicant as their monitored employee.
- The applicant pays $10 for fingerprinting (“one-time”)
- Disqualified applicants will be notified of their appeal rights
- The eligibility determination is based on a review of the criminal history record obtained from fingerprints and is made by the Department of Health
- Barriers to employment eligibility are established in the law. There are:
- Screening based barriers
- Criminal history barriers based on the employment classification
