Payment & Background Checks Needed for Assisted Living Licensure Completion

Posted on June 30, 2021 by Bobbie Guidry

Last week, the Minnesota Department of Health (MDH) clarified the final steps providers need to complete to receive their assisted living license by Aug. 1.

Step 1: Submit payment to move to the next phase
Look for an email on how to pay licensure fees electronically. Applicants must pay the complete license fee to move to the next step of credential verification. If you have not received your email, notify MDH at health.assistedliving@state.mn.us.

Step 2: Complete DHS background study for your leadershi
Background studies for the top officials listed on your application (Owners, Clinical Nurse Supervisor, Licensed Assisted Living Director, and other managerial officials with direct contact to residents) need to be completed immediately. For your application to proceed, these owners and leadership officials need a background study completed.

Owners are defined in statute as "an individual or legal entity that has a direct or indirect ownership interest of five percent or more in a licensee. For purposes of this chapter, ‘owner of a nonprofit corporation’ means the president and treasurer of the board of directors or, for an entity owned by an employee stock ownership plan, means the president and treasurer of the entity. A government entity that is issued a license under this chapter shall be designated the owner.” 

For a nonprofit, only the president of the board of directors and treasurer will be subject to background study requirements under the ownership definition, along with managerial officials with direct resident contact.

Once you submit the complete license fee, your authorized agent should watch for an email from the Department of Human Services (DHS), which outlines how to set up your background studies account for your new assisted living license (Sec. 144G.13 MN Statutes). Background studies need to be set up for all conversion and provisional assisted living license applicants.

Existing background studies can be affiliated with assisted living applications if your sensitive information person (SIP) is not changing. If you have an existing background study for someone at your current facility, you can affiliate the person’s background study with the application as long as the SIP is the same individual as you have listed for other license types.

Step 3:  Notify MDH as soon as all background studies are completed. 
Look for your DHS background study from dhs.ns2onboarding@state.mn.us, and remember to check your spam/junk mail folder.

Once you have received all your background study confirmations from DHS for the leadership team, and they are determined to be eligible, you should notify MDH all have been completed.  Include your assisted living licensure HFID number with your email and send it to health.assistedliving@state.mn.us. The license will not be issued unless all parties required to undergo a background study under 144G.13 are determined to be eligible.