Compliance Minute

Background Checks

Because Mission Point Healthcare Services (MPHS) participates in Federal healthcare programs (Medicare and Medicaid), an area of risk is billing Medicare and or Medicaid for services that were performed by an employee or vendor who has been excluded from participation in Federal healthcare programs.

In order to help reduce this risk, MPHS conducts various types of background checks, screenings, and verifications.  Most of these checks occur at the beginning of your employment or prior to the initiation of a contract or service agreement.  Thereafter, routine checks are conducted to ensure continued compliance and monitoring.

New employees sign a consent for a background check.  This check verifies the employee is not excluded from working in healthcare due to a criminal charge (there are certain charges that automatically prohibit a person from working in healthcare).

Those individuals and organizations that wish to do business with or provide a service on behalf of MPHS and then bill Medicare and or Medicaid also have background checks completed.  An extra step that MPHS takes is to check the List of Excluded Individuals and Entities List (LEIE) provided by the Office of Inspector General with the Department of Health and Human and Human Services government agency.  Individuals and/or entities on this list have been excluded from participating in Federal healthcare programs, and thus are unable to provide services or receive payment from providing services.

In addition to these checks, MPHS also verifies each individual that is required to have a license or certificate to do their job has the correct, unencumbered, current license and or certificate.  This includes a certified nursing assistant certificate or a nursing license.

Should you have any questions regarding the policies addressed in this article, please feel free to contact me at [email protected] or at 248-940-5390, extension 1023.  As always, the We Care Hotline at 616-975-5300 and [email protected] email address are available for anonymous reporting.

Contact Information:

Emery Dumas, LNHA, CHC
[email protected]
248-940-5390
“We Care” Hotline: 616-975-5335 or [email protected] (may remain anonymous)