US · guidance
CMS SOM App. J, Tag W152
§483.420(d)(1)(iii) The facility must prohibit the employment of individuals with a conviction
or prior employment history of child or client abuse, neglect or mistreatment.
Guidance §483.420(d)(1)(iii)
The facility is required to screen potential employees for a prior employment history of child or
client abuse, neglect or mistreatment, as well as for any conviction based on those offenses.
The abuse, neglect or mistreatment must have been directed toward a child or a
client/resident/patient of a health care facility in order for the prohibition of employment to
apply.
No one with a conviction or substantiated allegation of child or client abuse, neglect or
mistreatment regardless of employment date, is employed by the facility. This requirement also
applies to acts of abuse, neglect or mistreatment committed by a current ICF/IID employee
outside the jurisdiction of the ICF/IID (e.g., in the community or in another health care facility).
The facility must follow state guidelines or requirements for background checks to assure that
they make every effort to check new employee’s background.
Where the facility has terminated an employee based upon confirmation that abuse, neglect or
mistreatment occurred during the employee’s performance, and the termination decision was
overturned by either arbitration finding or a court finding, the employee must be returned to a
position which does not involve direct contact between that employee and clients of the facility.
A person who abused a resident in a nursing facility, and as a result, is barred from employment
in the nursing home setting would also be prohibited from employment in the ICF/IID. While
facilities are not required to periodically screen existing employees, if the facility becomes
aware that such action has been taken against an employee, the facility is required to prohibit
continued employment. This is also true of any conviction in a court of law for child, elder, or
client (resident, patient) abuse, neglect or mistreatment. Therefore, conviction for abusing
one's own child is also a reason employment would be prohibited.
History
Rev. 135, Issued: 02-27-15, Effective: 04-27-15, Implementation: 04-27-15
Provenance
- Source
- cms.gov
- Retrieved
- 2026-07-22
- Edition
- som-2026-07-22
- Content hash
12df5635ef62087a7d5578c4e0692bf695c55597b4984863f882da471e6866f2
The link goes to the issuing authority’s own document — the one we read to produce this record. Where a source publishes whole titles rather than sections, your browser may need a moment to jump to the provision.
Unofficial copy of government-published law, reproduced from official sources with full provenance. Not an official publication; verify against official sources before relying on it in a filing. Records in the 'guidance' corpus, and only that corpus, are sub-regulatory (interpretive guidelines, survey procedures) and are not binding law. Validity bounds follow each jurisdiction's declared temporalBasis.