New York Provider Alert: Criminal History Reference Checks

On July 7, 2026, The Office of the Inspector General (OIG) published a report which emphasized gaps in the New York State Department of Health’s (DOH) monitoring of nursing homes’ compliance with pre-employment background checks. The OIG has been conducting audits of different states to determine if information identified on background checks should have disqualified individuals from being hired based on Federal requirements.

Who Can’t be Hired

A quick reminder regarding the Federal regs related to hiring individuals who have a history of certain disqualifying offenses. Nursing homes may not hire anyone who has:

• Been found guilty by a court of law of abuse, neglect, exploitation, mistreatment of residents, or misappropriation of resident property
• A finding entered in the State Agency’s Nurse Aide Registry
• A disciplinary action in effect against his/her professional license as a result of a finding of abuse, neglect, exploitation, mistreatment of a resident or misappropriation of resident property

What OIG Found

The audit, conducted in 2024 but using data from CY2023, included a sample of ten employees per nursing home in the sample, resulting in a 100 person sample.

• DOH did not ensure that 6 of the 10 selected nursing homes complied with Federal requirements
• Nursing homes complied with Federal background check requirements for 92 of 100 employees screened

Potentially deficient practices identified include:

• Background check not performed or performed late (6 employees at 4 facilities) – This includes staff who worked anywhere from four days to two years before a background check was completed.
• Supervision documentation was not completed for employees allowed to work before background checks were completed.
• Background check may not have been performed prior to hire date (1 employee at 1 facility)
• License verification prior to hire date was not completed (1 employee at 1 facility)

Interestingly, OIG didn’t blame the providers for not completing all the requirements – instead, it blamed DOH for not having an adequate monitoring system to prevent nursing homes from hiring individuals with disqualifying backgrounds. OIG did, however, recognize that nursing homes didn’t consistently implement their CHRC policies and procedures to ensure checks were completed as required.

DOH Monitoring Failure

OIG blamed the fact that DOH didn’t provide adequate monitoring oversight because the entire timeframe between surveys is not covered. CHRC checks are only completed for 4 months of new hires. The Agency did not provide a firm recommendation on how to address this problem but did tell DOH to reinforce its background check guidance for nursing homes to complete all required pre-employment checks prior to allowing someone to start working at the facility.

Read the July 2026 OIG Report, “New York Should Improve Its Oversight of Nursing Homes’ Compliance With Background Check Requirements” here.