Health Care Council of Illinois
Regulatory Update: News and Views
This is the first of a regular newsletter from the Health
Care Council of Illinois, keeping members of the Illinois Health Care
Association and Illinois Council on Long Term Care informed of the latest
federal and state regulatory changes and interpretations.
Official Notice from
HFS Regarding Stimulus Payment
The Illinois
Department of Healthcare and Family Services (HFS) issued an informational
notice dated
“The purpose of this
notice is to inform providers that the refund received from the Internal
Revenue Service as result of the 2007 Economic Stimulus Law will be exempt from
consideration for purposes of eligibility for medical assistance for three
months from receipt. The money is to be
available for the resident to spend as they wish. Any amount remaining after three months will
be considered an asset and will be applied toward the $2,000 asset limit.
If any amount
remaining from the refund after three months, plus the resident’s account,
totaling $1,800 or more, the facility must notify the resident pursuant to 89
We are expecting the Department of Human Services (DHS) to
release a similar notice very shortly.
Proposed IDPH Employee
Fingerprint Program
The Illinois
Department of Public Health (IDPH) published sweeping proposed amendments
to the employee Health Care Worker Background Check Rules in the April 4th
Illinois Register. The new proposed regulations, once enacted,
will phase-in the fingerprinting of all
new unlicensed employees. A key
provision is that once a new employee or new CNA student has been fingerprinted
and entered on the Health Care Worker Registry, fingerprinting will not have to be done again, even if that employee
goes to another nursing home. It is
expected that the Department will begin phasing-in the fingerprint check
program for new unlicensed employees
sometime this summer, most likely starting with the ten northern counties
that had participated in last year’s federal fingerprint pilot project.
The proposed regulations will change a number of background
check procedures currently in place:
Ø All NEW unlicensed employees
hired after the effective starting date for your region will be required to
have a fingerprint check from a livescan vendor, replacing the current UCIA
name-based check.
Ø
If
an employer offers an individual a conditional offer of employment, the
employer shall submit the employee’s name, social security number and other
information on the IDPH Health Care Worker Registry Web-site within two working
days, and have the fingerprints submitted electronically by the livescan
vendor to the State Police within ten working days. If
the fingerprints are not submitted within ten days, the employee cannot
continue working.
Ø The State
Police will then forward the results of the fingerprint background check to
IDPH, which will then inform the facility electronically. This will be different than the current UCIA
name-based procedure where the facility gets the results from the State Police
and informs IDPH.
Ø Once an employee has had a
fingerprint check and it is recorded on the Health Care Worker Registry, it
will never have to be done again, even if the employee changes jobs. The fingerprint check is continually and
automatically updated. Any new
disqualifying convictions since the fingerprint check was first done will
appear on the Registry and the last known employer listed on the Registry will
be notified.
Ø Only new unlicensed employees (CNAs
and others) will need a fingerprint check, not licensed employees
(nurses, therapists, administrators, physicians) or students in these
professions or outside contractors providing “infrequent and occasional”
support services, such as maintenance or construction, “not directly related to
the care of the resident.”
Ø CNA training programs will be
required to do a fingerprint check on all trainees prior to the start of the
training program. All newly graduated
CNAs, after the start of the fingerprint program, will have already been
fingerprinted by the time they graduate from the certification program.
Ø Existing employees will not have to
be fingerprinted, unless they change employers.
Ø The fingerprint check will only be
for Illinois State Police database; it will not include an FBI check. In the ten-county pilot last year, sponsored
by a federal grant, an FBI check had been included.
Ø The current cost of a State Police
fingerprint check is $15; the average fee from a livescan vendor is $10,
although the live scan vendor fee may be further negotiated.
Ø There will be three categories of
disqualifying offenses:
- crimes
likes murder, battery and sexual assault which will never be waivered;
- non-violent
offenses over five to nine years ago will be automatically waivered (No
waiver request will be needed. Employers will be notified of the automatic
“rehabilitation waiver” by IDPH at the same time they are notified of the
results of the fingerprint check.
Employees receiving an automatic waiver will not have to request a
waiver and can continue working); and
- non-violent
offenses over one to ten years ago for which a waiver request will need to
be submitted to IDPH. During the
time a waiver request is being made, the employee cannot work in a long
term care facility. The law
requires IDPH to make a waiver request decision within thirty days
after a completed waiver is submitted.
Ø In addition to the fingerprint
check, “the facility shall retain a screen print of the background check
initiation page, which documents that the employer did conduct an internet
search of the web sites form the links provided through the Health Care Worker
Registry and found no results from those web sites that would prevent the
employee from being hired. No additional
screen prints from those web sites shall be required in the employee’s file.”
Ø Under federal law, CNAs who have not
worked in a nursing-related job in the previous 24 months cannot work as a CNA
unless they take the CNA training and competency program again. If the CNA can prove healthcare employment in
the previous 24 months, he or she may be hired as a CNA and the employment
information entered by the facility into the Health Care Worker Registry.
Ø Once the new program starts, each
facility must provide employment verification to the Health Care Worker
Registry for each employee no less than
annually. A facility must indicate employment and termination dates within thirty
days after hiring or terminating an employee, as well as the employment
category and type. If no employer
verifies an individual’s employment on the Registry for two years, the
individual is dropped from the Registry.
This new program is not yet in effect.
You will be informed by IDPH and your associations of the timetable for
replacing your UCIA name-based background check with the livescan vendor
fingerprint program in your area. As
with the federal pilot project, it can be expected that IDPH will be conducting
training sessions in your area just prior to implementing the program. Until such time, facilities should continue
to do UCIA background checks as required under current law and regulations.
Upcoming
newsletters in the next few weeks will review these proposed regulations and
their operational implications in more detail.
There is a public comment period until