A Michigan woman accused of posing as a board-certified therapist at a recovery center in Brighton has been arraigned, Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel announced. The woman, 34, was arraigned in Livingston County’s 53 District Court and is charged with the following:
- sixteen counts of unauthorized practice of a health profession, $5,000, four-year felonies; and
- two counts of identity theft, $25,000, five-year felonies.
The Department of Attorney General alleges that the woman obtained employment in 2018 at a recovery center in Brighton. During her employment at the facility, she repeatedly represented herself as a Board-Certified Behavioral Analyst (BCBA) despite her lack of required certification by the Behavior Analyst Certification Board (BACB). In addition, she was never licensed by the State of Michigan as required under the Michigan Public Health Code.
The woman continuously presented herself as a certified and licensed BCBA through professional business cards, verbal statements, and written documents. It is alleged she engaged in job duties which required such a certification and license while working with a highly vulnerable population of children diagnosed with Autism as well as the parents of the child patients. In addition, she allegedly utilized the BACB certification number of another state certified individual to fraudulently manufacture a BACB certificate under her own identity to continue to present herself as a legitimate BCBA.
Issue:
Healthcare settings are required to conduct extensive background checks on all employees. These should be comprehensive in order to ensure that each potential employee is qualified and permitted to be employed in a healthcare facility that receives government funds. Before an employee is officially hired into a position, a criminal background check and sex offender registry search must be completed, and the individual must be cleared in the databases. Additionally, an identification verification check, past employment history, education verification, and OIG federal exclusion list check must be completed for all employment candidates. Where required, drug screens are also necessary. For positions that need certifications or licenses, verification of these credentials must be conducted and documented in the individual’s personnel file. After hire, it is essential that the databases are continually monitored to ensure that no current employee has recently been placed on an exclusion list. Routine monitoring will ensure that employees are legally permitted to practice healthcare in your facility.
Discussion Points:
- Review your policies and procedures on preemployment and regular monitoring of employee checks. Update your policies as needed.
- Train staff who are responsible to perform employee screening regarding the need for careful and thorough verification of each individual’s identity and license number, and to check for criminal convictions and exclusion from Medicare through review of the OIG’s List of Excluded Individuals and Entities at https://exclusions.oig.hhs.gov. All staff should be trained in how to report any employee who they suspect may be unlicensed or have a criminal background to their supervisor or through the facility’s Hotline.
- Periodically audit to ensure that all employees requiring licensure and/or certification have been checked periodically to verify that their licenses and certifications are valid and current.
