Hawaii Did Not Ensure That Selected Nursing Facilities Complied With Federal and State Background Check Requirements

Why OIG Did This Audit

• Background checks for employees are an important safety measure that can help protect some of the most vulnerable populations who receive Federal health care benefits.
• As part of its oversight activities, OIG is conducting a series of audits nationwide regarding employment in nursing facilities of individuals whose criminal background checks identified information or events that should have disqualified those individuals from being hired based on Federal requirements (disqualifying backgrounds).
• This audit assessed whether two Hawaii State agencies ensured that selected nursing facilities in Hawaii complied with Federal and State requirements that prohibit employment of individuals with disqualifying backgrounds.

What OIG Found

The State agencies did not ensure that selected nursing facilities in Hawaii complied with Federal requirements that prohibit employment of individuals with disqualifying backgrounds and State requirements for conducting employee background checks. Specifically, for the 10 selected nursing facilities, we found the following:

• Seven selected nursing facilities did not conduct background checks to ensure that employees were free from disqualifying backgrounds based on Federal regulations.
• All 10 selected nursing facilities did not conduct 1 or more State-required background checks of their employees.

What OIG Recommends

We recommended that the two Hawaii State agencies conduct periodic reviews of nursing facilities’ compliance with background check requirements. One of the State agencies concurred with our findings and provided information on actions it took and plans to take in response to our recommendation, and the other stated that the first State agency’s written comments were on behalf of the State of Hawaii.

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