Two weeks ago, assisted living facilities, nursing homes, and other providers licensed by the Minnesota Department of Health (MDH) transitioned back to fingerprint-based background studies beginning for new employees.

Some members have reported concerns in the early going. We are eager to gather additional information we can use for troubleshooting and advocacy with the Minnesota Department of Human Services (DHS) and the new fingerprinting vendor, IDEMIA.

Here are examples of issues members have reported and which we have shared with DHS:

• Some employees are not receiving the email from IDEMIA with instructions on how to complete the online pre-enrollment process or not receiving it timely, which is necessary to schedule a fingerprinting appointment.
• Some fingerprinting sites have informed providers to expect a lengthy lag time for background studies to be cleared.
• Some employees have experienced cancellations and rescheduling of their fingerprinting appointment times.

Several members have also expressed concern that they have contacted the DHS Background Studies division without receiving responses to emails or have experienced long wait times on the phone without successfully reaching a staff member.

Problems like these can create barriers and stress on the ability to hire and onboard new employees that we cannot afford, and we are communicating and advocating with DHS.

We urge members to let us know of issues your human resources staff or new hires experience with obtaining fingerprinting and any technical problems you encounter with the new system.

Please email Jonathan Lips with any feedback or concerns you may have, and we will continue working with DHS leadership to resolve these issues.