COMMITTEE SUBSTITUTE

FOR

H. B. 3108

(By Delegates Campbell, Ellington and Perdue)

(Originating in the Committee on the Judiciary)

[February 17, 2014]

A BILL to amend the Code of West Virginia, 1931, as amended, by adding thereto a new section, designated §16-5C-21, relating to criminal background checks on applicants for employment by nursing homes.

Be it enacted by the Legislature of West Virginia:

    That the Code of West Virginia, 1931, as amended, be amended by adding thereto a new section, designated §16-5C-21, to read as follows:

ARTICLE 5C. NURSING HOMES.

§16-5C-21. Criminal background check.

    (a) Notwithstanding a legislative rule or provider manual issued by the department, a nursing home shall conduct a criminal background check on all applicants before permanently employing such applicants.

    (b) If an applicant has been convicted of a felony in any jurisdiction within ten years prior to the date of application, and such conviction remains unreversed, he or she may not be employed by a nursing home.

    (c) If an applicant has been convicted of a misdemeanor or felony offense involving abuse, neglect, assault or battery of a child or adult or an elderly or incapacitated person, or a misdemeanor or felony offense involving fraud, duress, coercion, embezzlement, conversion or any financial crime committed against an elderly or incapacitated person, he or she may not be employed by a nursing home.

    (d) If an applicant is authorized to practice a profession under chapter thirty of this code, he or she shall only be required to meet the criminal background check standard established to obtain licensure in that particular profession in order to work in a nursing home in that particular profession. If a criminal background check standard is not established for that profession under chapter thirty of this code, the department shall implement a criminal background check standard by proposing a rule for legislative approval in accordance with the provisions of article three, chapter twenty-nine-a of this code.