Home health agencies in Connecticut are now subject to Connecticut’s long-term care facility law. Subsection (g) of section 19a-491c allowed the Department of Public Health (DPH) to phase in some requirements, including

DPH has established a web-based program referred to as the Applicant Background Check Management Services (ABCMS). ABCMS provides long-term facilities and providers with a web portal to submit applicants, conduct registry checks, and process and track fingerprint-based criminal history record checks prior to extending an offer of employment, as required under the law.

Under the law, background checks are required only for prospective employees, contractors, and certain volunteers

means physical access to a patient or resident in a long-term care facility that afford an individual with the opportunity to commit abuse or neglect against or misappropriate the property of a patient or resident. See Conn. Gen. Stat. § 19a-491c(a)(2)

The DPH interprets to mean the provision of supportive or health services to a patient or resident of a long-term care facility. This interpretation is consistent with the definition of “long-term care” found in federal law.

Conn. Gen. Stat. § 19a-491c(c)(1).

When it comes to disqualifying an applicant, it can only be done by the DPH ABCMS program staff and not the long-term care facility. Here are the disqualifying offenses, described in 42 U.S.C. § 1320a-7(a)(1), (2), (3) or (4), .:

1.    – any criminal offense related to the delivery of an item or service under Medicare or a State health care program(State health care programs include Medicaid, the Title V Federal maternal and child health block grant, Title XX Federal social services block grants, and the State Children’s Health Insurance Program);

2.    – any criminal offense under Federal or State law relating to neglect or abuse of patients in connection with the delivery of a health care item or service;

3.    – any felony offense relating to fraud, theft, embezzlement, breach of fiduciary responsibility, or other financial misconduct in connection with the delivery of a health care item or service or with respect to any act or omission in a health care program operated by or financed in whole or in part by any Federal, State, or local government agency, if the offense occurred after August 11, 1996; and

4.    – any felony offense under Federal or State law relating to the unlawful manufacture, distribution, prescription, or dispensing of a controlled substance, if the offense occurred after August 11, 1996.

Additionally, applicants are ineligible for employment under the law if the applicant is subject to a substantiated finding of neglect, abuse, or misappropriation of property by a state or federal agency pursuant to an investigation conducted in accordance with 42 U.S.C. § 1395i-3(g)(1)(C) or 42 U.S.C. § 1696r(g)(1)(C). Conn. Gen. Stat. § 19a-491c(a)(3).

For more information about ABCMS, here is the link to the DPH Frequent Asked Questions page: http://www.ct.gov/dph/lib/dph/abcms/frequently_asked_questions.pdf