Who Is Caring for Grandma? Chances are They've Served Time
A recent Inspector General report reveals some disturbing news about America's nursing homes. It found that over 90% of all nursing homes employ at least one convicted criminal. Learn more about how this occurs and what it may mean for your loved ones.
April 27, 2011
Who Is Caring for Grandma? Chances are They've Served TimeA recent Inspector General report reveals some disturbing news about America's nursing homes. It found that over 90% of all nursing homes employ at least one convicted criminal.
In June of 2009, government investigators ran background checks on over 250 nursing homes that are typical examples of the 728 Medicare-certified facilities across the country. 92% of the nursing homes in the study employ at least one convict.
Most convicts employed by nursing homes have committed non-violent, property crimes like burglary, shoplifting, or writing bad checks. Fortunately, the report found that most crimes were committed before--many long before--the convict was employed by a nursing home. Most convicts who work at nursing homes are indirectly involved in patients' lives and perform jobs like housekeeping, laundry, maintenance, and security. However, convicts are also employed as nurse and medication aides.
The high rate of convict employment may be attributed to the lack of federal supervision of hiring practices at nursing homes. There is no federal law requiring background checks for nursing homes. However, 98% of nursing homes do perform background checks of potential employees. Ten states require nursing homes to perform FBI and statewide checks, and 33 require statewide checks. The problem with statewide checks is that they do not catch criminals who committed their crimes in another state. A more troubling statistic, however, is the face that eight states do not require any background checks. Those states are Alabama, Colorado, Connecticut, Hawaii, Montana, the Dakotas, and Wyoming.
Fortunately, the new health care legislation passed by Congress creates a standardized, nationwide background database. However, states do need to opt into the program to access the database. Hopefully, in the next few years, the new health care reforms will help protect America's elderly from living among convicts.
Article provided by Wood & Carlton PC
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