Indiana Provider Fined Large Amount For Negligent Hiring/Retention

An Indiana provider of nursing home employees has been issued $376,000 in penalties for employing individuals who either had their licenses taken away or that have been convicted of crimes.

Officials say it is one of the largest fines and is only made worse by the fact that the violator, American Senior Companies, did not report the violations. ASC operates nursing homes owned by a public agency in Marion County.

The Office of Inspector General (OIG) became aware of 7 employees that were ineligible to work in cases where Medicaid payments were involved in any way, after being told of the issues by the Indiana Medicaid Fraud Control Unit in 2009.

Indiana's Attorney General, Greg Zoeller, commented that it was the largest settlement that the office has ever received in a Medicaid Excluded-Provider Case.

American Senior Companies "Knew or should have known" that the employees were not allowed to take part in federal health care programs, according to Steve Soloman, of The Office to The Counsel of Inspector General. According to Soloman, a majority of the employees mentioned either lost their licenses to practice or had them revoked.

In most cases, violations are "self-reported" by providers according to Soloman. It is the providers responsibility to regularly check lists of contractors and workers who are excluded from participation in these programs.

Simple pre employment background checks and screening would have helped prevent such a large penalty and possibly would have kept ASC in compliance.

It’s important to note that Employers Investigative Services provides the exact searches that will help keep providers compliant including OIG & GSA searches, as well as Excluded Parties Lists and FACIS and Terror Watch List searches.

To learn more about how to better insulate your organization from negligent hiring actions, please visit eischecks.com or call an Investigator and Account Specialist at 866.350.5638.