(a)  Any person seeking employment to provide care to elderly individuals or individuals with disabilities who is, or may be required to be, licensed, registered, trained, or certified with the office of Medicaid if that employment involves routine contact with elderly individuals or individuals with disabilities without the presence of other employees, shall undergo a national criminal records check supported by fingerprints. The applicant will report to the office of attorney general bureau of criminal identification to submit their fingerprints. The fingerprints will subsequently be submitted to the federal bureau of investigation (FBI) by the bureau of criminal identification of the office of attorney general. The national criminal records check shall be initiated prior to, or within one week of, employment.

Terms Used In Rhode Island General Laws 42-7.2-18.3

  • Appeal: A request made after a trial, asking another court (usually the court of appeals) to decide whether the trial was conducted properly. To make such a request is "to appeal" or "to take an appeal." One who appeals is called the appellant.
  • Discovery: Lawyers' examination, before trial, of facts and documents in possession of the opponents to help the lawyers prepare for trial.
  • Evidence: Information presented in testimony or in documents that is used to persuade the fact finder (judge or jury) to decide the case for one side or the other.
  • in writing: include printing, engraving, lithographing, and photo-lithographing, and all other representations of words in letters of the usual form. See Rhode Island General Laws 43-3-16
  • person: may be construed to extend to and include co-partnerships and bodies corporate and politic. See Rhode Island General Laws 43-3-6

(b)  The director of the office of Medicaid may, by rule, identify those positions requiring criminal records checks. The identified employee, through the executive office of health and human services, shall apply to the bureau of criminal identification of the department of attorney general for a national criminal records check. Upon the discovery of any disqualifying information, as defined in § 42-7.2-18.4 and in accordance with the rule promulgated by the secretary of the executive office of health and human services, the bureau of criminal identification of the department of the attorney general will inform the applicant, in writing, of the nature of the disqualifying information; and, without disclosing the nature of the disqualifying information, will notify the executive office of health and human services, in writing, that disqualifying information has been discovered.

(c)  An applicant against whom disqualifying information has been found, for purposes of appeal, may provide a copy of the national criminal history check to the executive office of health and human services, which shall make a judgment regarding the approval of the applicant.

(d)  In those situations in which no disqualifying information has been found, the bureau of criminal identification of the department of the attorney general shall inform the applicant and the executive office of health and human services, in writing, of this fact.

(e)  The executive office of health and human services shall maintain on file evidence that criminal records checks have been initiated on all applicants subsequent to July 1, 2022.

(f)  The applicant shall be responsible for the cost of conducting the national criminal records check through the bureau of criminal identification of the department of the attorney general.

History of Section.
P.L. 2022, ch. 231, art. 12, § 5, effective July 1, 2022.