You asked for a summary of Attorney General Blumenthal's proposal that home health aides submit to criminal history checks when they are hired. You were particularly interested in how these checks are done.

Attorney General Blumenthal has proposed that anyone a home health care, homemaker-health aide, or homemaker companion agency hires after October 1, 2009 submit to a state and national criminal history record check. His proposal bans these agencies from employing anyone convicted of a felony within the past 10 years. It also requires anyone an agency hires after October 1, 2009 to sign a form that asks whether (1) the person has been convicted in a state or federal court of a “crime involving violence or dishonesty” or (2) has been disciplined by a state or other governmental (including foreign) licensing body. A person who makes a false statement on this questionnaire commits a class A misdemeanor, which is punishable by up to one year in prison, a fine of up to $2,000, or both. The Public Health Committee has not yet raised a bill to implement this proposal.

The proposal requires the criminal history checks to be conducted pursuant to CGS § 29-17a. That statute requires the party asking for the check to arrange for fingerprinting the individual whose record it wants to check and to submit the fingerprints to the State Police Bureau of Identification. (Fingerprinting can be done at a local police station or at State Police headquarters.) The requesting party could be the home health agency or a third party it hires to do background checks. The State Police conduct the state criminal record check and send the fingerprints to the FBI for the national record check. The requesting party pays $25 for the state records check and $19.25 for the national check.

SS:ts