Employees, patients and their families must feel safe in any health care environment, which creates unique staffing challenges. To effectively meet these challenges, you need a background screening partner with specialized compliance knowledge and expertise with industry-specific search tools – especially the FACIS Search.

SafestHires is considered an industry leader for the FACIS search. Over the years, we’ve helped thousands of healthcare organizations leverage the power of this search to keep patients safe, prevent exposure to penalties and protect reputations.

Dr. Brian Hansen was arrested on eight counts of sexual abuse with his female patients. The first two counts involved alleged sex acts by force. The other six counts say Hansen allegedly engaged in a pattern, practice or scheme to engage in sexual contact with a patient who received mental health services from him. Hansen plead guilty to one charge and received five years probation.

We’ve all read stories like this and everyone agrees that it makes our skin crawl. You may even know someone who was mistreated or abused by a doctor or other healthcare professional. It can be emotionally devastating when a person is victimized this way. And this kind of abuse can be extremely damaging to a hospital, clinic or other healthcare organization. It can be met with fines and it can create a lasting distrust among patients and their families.

Thankfully, there is a pre-employment background check that can reveal if a healthcare professional has been sanctioned for professional misconduct. It’s called the Fraud Abuse Control Information System or FACIS (pronounced FACE-ISS) for short. Because the FACIS search is specific to the healthcare field, it’s really the most comprehensive and reliable tool that can be used to determine if a healthcare professional is suitable for employment. 

The Fraud and Abuse Control Information System (FACIS) is a current and historical database of healthcare related sanctions, exclusions, debarments and disciplinary actions at the state and federal levels. The data available from FACIS is unique in that sanctions records are not written over or expunged once the issue has been resolved. Because the FACIS database contains so much information, any analyst who uses this data must apply critical thinking skills when compiling a file. In other words, the FACIS search should only be utilized by trained professionals. The average FACIS response includes the following:

– The issuing body

– The determination date

– The general findings

– A reference for additional data

FACIS Levels

FACIS is separated into two levels that allow you to screen employees and vendors against different
sources for exclusions, debarments, sanctions, and disciplinary actions.

FACIS Level 1M is the recommended baseline and minimally required compliance search for candidates employed by organizations receiving government funding. It includes: OIG, GSA, DEA, FDA, PHS, ORI, TRICARE and OFAC-SDN data, Medicare Opt-Out, State Medicaid sanctions, 42 HEAT sources, 51 AG Notice and Release sources, and state level procurement/contractor debarment sources.

FACIS Level 3 is the gold standard of sanction and exclusionary searches and includes: All sources included in FACIS 1M and the sanctioning boards from all 56 U.S. jurisdictions across all provider types. This accesses more than 3,000 sources.

At a minimum, FACIS Level 1M, satisfies the recommendations set forth by the OIG and CMS by screening employees for federal and state exclusions and debarments. However, many of our clients feel that the best practice is to take a more assertive approach by monitoring employees through FACIS Level 3. It protects them from the potential negative ramifications of employing individuals or vendors who are sanctioned by a state level licensing board.

To see how a FACIS search can be ordered in our system, watch the demo video toward the bottom of this page.

Contact us below to obtain more information on the FACIS search.