Criminal checks

It’s scary that you should have to check the backgrounds of people who care for the elderly, but that’s part of what will be legally required when the Patient Safety and Abuse Prevention Act becomes law. Note that I said, “when” and not “if.”

The bill, authored by Senator Herb Kohl (D-WI), Chairman of the Senate Special Committee on Aging, and Senator Pete Domenici (R-NM), is picking up supporters of all kinds according to Senior Journal. Powerful Senators like Carl Levin (D-MI) and presidential hopeful Hillary Clinton (D-NY) have signed on as co-sponsors.

The bill has also picked up support from influential organizations. The American Health Care Association (AHCA), an affiliation of state health organizations representing more than ten thousand non-profit and for-profit assisted living, nursing facility, developmentally-disabled, and sub-acute care providers, has endorsed it.

Even though I’m sure the bill will pass, no one can predict exactly what form it will take. We can be pretty sure of a couple of things, though.

We can be sure that the bill will require all facilities that care for the elderly to do what many such facilities already do. Elder-care facilities will have to run pre-employment background checks on anyone who […]