New Mexico Administrative Code
Title 8 - SOCIAL SERVICES
Chapter 370 - OVERSIGHT OF LICENSED HEALTHCARE FACILITIES AND COMMUNITY BASED WAIVER PROGRAMS
Part 5 - CAREGIVERS CRIMINAL HISTORY SCREENING REQUIREMENTS
Section 8.370.5.7 - DEFINITIONS
Current through Register Vol. 35, No. 18, September 24, 2024
For purposes of this rule, the following definitions shall apply:
A. "act" means Sections 29-17-2 to 29-17-5, NMSA 1978 of the Caregivers Criminal History Screening Act;
B. "applicant" means a person who applies, and is offered employment or contractual service with a care provider to provide services as a caregiver or hospital caregiver whether as an employee or contractor;
C. "care" means the therapy, services, treatment, support, supervision, assistance with the activities of daily living or management of a care recipient;
D. "caregiver" means any person whose employment or contractual service with a care provider includes direct care or routine and unsupervised physical or financial access to any care recipient serviced by that provider;
E. "care provider" includes:
F. "care recipient" means any person under the care of a care provider who has a physical or mental illness, injury or disability or who suffers from any cognitive impairment that restricts or limits the person's activities;
G. "conditional employment" means supervised employment pursuant to a bona fide offer of employment by a care provider to an applicant, caregiver or hospital caregiver, which is contingent upon the receipt of notice from the authority that the applicant's, caregiver's or hospital caregiver's nationwide and statewide criminal history screening indicates no existence of a disqualifying conviction, or notice from the authority pending an administrative reconsideration procedure; this includes that period of employment during the time allowed for responding to the authority's request for additional information in cases where the applicant's, caregiver's or hospital caregiver's criminal history record indicates an arrest without a final disposition for a crime listed under 8.370.5.11 NMAC.
H. "consent" means the written acknowledgment of permission to conduct a nationwide or statewide criminal history screening; consent also includes, with respect to the criminal history record, permission for the authority, following an attempt to obtain clarifying information from the applicant, caregiver or hospital caregiver to attribute, as a rebuttable presumption, disqualifying conviction status to any arrest for crimes that would constitute a disqualifying conviction and for which the arrest appearing on the nationwide criminal history record lacks a final disposition;
I. "authority" means the New Mexico health care authority;
J. "disqualifying conviction" means a plea, judgment or verdict of guilty, a plea of nolo contendere, an alford plea or any plea or judgment entered in connection with a suspended sentence, in this state or from any other state or jurisdiction to a felony crime listed in 8.370.5.11 NMAC; if a conviction may be considered in or used for sentence enhancement in a subsequent proceeding, then it is a disqualifying conviction under these rules if the conviction is for a crime listed in 8.370.5.11 NMAC;
K. "hospital caregiver" means any person whose employment or contractual service with a care provider includes direct care or routine and unsupervised physical or financial access to any care recipient serviced by that care provider in an inpatient setting who is not a licensed New Mexico health care professional practicing within the scope of a profession's license;
L. "nationwide criminal history screening" means a criminal history background investigation of an applicant, caregiver or hospital caregiver through the use of fingerprints reviewed by the authority of public safety and submitted to the federal bureau of investigation, resulting in the generation of a nationwide criminal history record for that applicant, caregiver or hospital caregiver;
M. "nationwide criminal history record" means information collected by criminal justice agencies concerning an applicant's, caregiver's or hospital caregiver's arrests, indictments or other formal criminal charges, and any dispositions arising therefrom, including convictions, dismissals, acquittals, sentencing and correctional supervision;
N. "natural supports" means those resources, systems and persons that are readily available to the general community, including a care recipient, without regard to the care provider;
O. "routine" means in the context of care provision or financial access by an applicant, caregiver or hospital caregiver, that which is non-episodic and regularly scheduled or assigned;
P. "supervised" means, in the context of care provision or financial access, the supervisory oversight a care provider employs to ensure the prevention of abuse, neglect or the misappropriation of property of a care recipient by a caregiver or hospital caregiver during the caregiver's or hospital caregiver's conditional employment period; supervisory oversight shall include but is not limited to a management program utilized by the care provider, which demonstrates a systematic and routine monitoring of the safety and quality of service provided by the caregiver or hospital caregiver to the care recipient during the caregiver's or hospital caregiver's conditional employment period;
Q. "statewide criminal history screening" means a criminal history background investigation of an applicant, caregiver or hospital caregiver through the use of fingerprints reviewed by the authority of public safety resulting in the generation of a statewide criminal history record of the applicant, caregiver or hospital caregiver;
R. "unsupervised" means, in the context of care provision or financial access, that which occurs without the on-site, visual or physical presence of another caregiver or hospital caregiver or a family member of the care recipient or of another individual representing the care provider.