DHS Delays Transition to Fingerprint-Based Background Studies for MDH-Licensed Providers

Posted on November 11, 2021 by Jonathan Lips

This week, the Minnesota Department of Human Services (DHS) announced that MDH-licensed providers, including home care, assisted living facilities, and nursing homes, will not transition back to fingerprint-based background studies until Jan. 5, 2022. Until the transition occurs, these providers will continue to submit emergency studies, as we have been doing throughout the pandemic.

Other groups, including DHS-licensed providers who have already transitioned to fingerprint-based studies, will continue submitting those studies and not revert to emergency studies.

DHS had planned to transition MDH-licensed providers on Nov. 17 but has delayed the transition to allow additional time for IDEMIA, the new fingerprinting vendor, to open service locations across the state.  The vendor must have eighty-three sites open by Jan. 5; as of Nov. 10, seventy-six sites are in place, and three more are expected next week.

The state has also changed the plan for resubmission of emergency studies. Individuals who received emergency studies will also need to have a fully compliant study by July 2, 2022 to continue working. Initially, DHS planned to begin all resubmissions on Dec. 1, but the new plan is to stagger this process by provider type. The target dates are February-March for DHS-licensed providers and April-May for MDH-licensed providers.

The DHS also indicates that this delayed transition provides additional time for providers to explore the purchase of a fingerprinting system for use within their organizations. Based on the available information, this opportunity has been viable only for very large organizations, given that an organization must submit 100 or more studies per month. We are continuing to work with DHS to determine if this option could be made more widely available, knowing that we must eliminate as many barriers to onboarding new staff as possible.

We will continue to follow the transition process and share any updates with members as we receive them.