Ohio to expand background checks on home health workers

Ohio officials announced this week that they will use a $2.1 million federal grant to expand criminal background checks for health-care workers who provide home- and community-based services to Ohioans (Source: “Health care workers’ criminal checks to be expanded,” Columbus Dispatch, May 16, 2013).

“It is important that seniors and people with disabilities can trust the service providers that come into their homes, and this program will ensure that home-based services are of the highest quality,” said Greg Moody, director of Gov. John Kasich’s Office of Health Transformation.

Ohio will add $700,000 in state funds to the grant from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. The funds will extend the use of the Ohio attorney general’s Retained Applicant Fingerprint Database Information Exchange to the health workers. Long used by law enforcement, the system, which monitors criminal convictions, also is used for background checks on teachers. State officials can’t yet say when automated checks will begin.