A Michigan woman was charged with identity theft for fraudulently posing as a licensed nurse, US Attorney for the Western District of Michigan Mark Totten announced on August 2, 2023.
According to allegations made in court documents, the 48-year-old woman used the Michigan licensing number and the name of a person licensed as a nurse to obtain employment as a nurse at an area hospice facility. She did not possess a valid nursing license and represented that she had earned a master’s degree in nursing despite having no formal degree of any kind in nursing.
The hospice facility learned that the woman was a nurse impostor when her fingerprints matched the fingerprints on record due to her previous state and federal convictions for practicing nursing without a license in Texas in 2015 and 2016. Over a seven-month period, she had obtained employment as a registered nurse at two hospitals and three nursing homes in five different Texas cities. In October 2017 she was sentenced to prison for 14 months, followed by three years of supervised release, and was ordered to pay restitution totaling more than $34,000.
She is currently charged with identity theft related to the transfer of the means of identification of another person in violation of Title 18, United States Code, Section 1028(a)(7). If convicted, she faces a maximum of 15 years in prison.
“Any unqualified person who poses as a medical professional puts the lives of innocent patients at risk, as alleged in this case,” said Devin J. Kowalski, Acting Special Agent in Charge of the FBI in Michigan. “I would like to thank the Michigan State Police for their outstanding investigative work during this case. The FBI remains committed to working with our partners to ensure identity theft cases like this one are thoroughly investigated.”
Compliance Perspective
Issue
It is a crime to hold oneself out as practicing a health profession, to use as your own the license or registration of another person, or to actually practice nursing without a license. 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’s List of Excluded Individuals and Entities (LEIE) check must be completed for all employment candidates. 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 or had a license or certification suspended or revoked since the last check. Routine monitoring will ensure that employees are legally permitted to practice healthcare in your facility.
Discussion Points
- Review policies and procedures for verifying the status of professional licenses and monitoring the OIG’s LEIE. Update as necessary.
- Train appropriate staff to follow protocols for verification of licenses and certifications of employees at the time of hire and on an ongoing basis to ensure that those licenses remain up to date and are unencumbered. Ensure that training is provided to licensed personnel about their responsibility to maintain an active license and to notify administration should their license be suspended, expire, or if they are added to the OIG’s LEIE. Document that these trainings occurred, and file the signed documents in each employee’s education file.
- Periodically audit to verify that the licensing and certifications of employees are valid and up to date and that OIG LEIE checks are routinely conducted. Immediately address any negative findings.
*This news alert has been prepared by Med-Net Concepts, LLC for informational purposes only and is not intended to provide legal advice.*
