Hearing Process for Nurse Aides, Home Health Aides and Homemakers

(A) Upon receipt of a request for a hearing from an accused nurse aide, home health aide or homemaker, the Department must complete the hearing within 120 days from the day it receives the request for a hearing. (B) The hearing shall be conducted pursuant to 801 CMR 1.02, The Standard Adjudicatory Rules of Practices and Procedures Informal/Fair Hearing Rules. 155.014: continued (C) The Department must hold the hearing at a reasonable place and time convenient for such accused individual. (D) A hearing officer shall not make a finding that such accused individual has neglected a patient or resident if the individual demonstrates that such neglect was caused by factors beyond the control of the individual. (E) After the adjudication of a case, the hearing officer shall transmit a copy of the decision to the accused nurse aide, home health aide or homemaker and to the Department. The Department shall then send a copy of the hearing officer’s decision to the following: (1) the administrator of the facility in which the incident occurred, or the director of the home health agency, homemaker agency or hospice program that employed such accused individual; (2) if known to the Department, the administrator of the facility that currently employs such accused individual, if different from the facility in which the incident occurred; or the director of the home health agency, homemaker agency or hospice program that currently employs such accused, if different from that individual’s place of employment when the incident occurred; (3) the Attorney General; (4) the registry as defined in 105 CMR 155.003. (F) If the decision rendered by the hearing officer is adverse to the accused nurse aide, home health aide or homemaker, the hearing officer shall also transmit to such individual a notice informing him or her of the right of appeal. Such appeal shall be made in accordance with the provisions of M.G.L. c. 30A. (G) In a neglect case, where there has been a sanction imposed or a finding or adjudicated finding against a nurse aide, home health aide, or homemaker where such sanction or finding was placed on the Registry, such individual may, after one year from the date the sanction or finding was placed on the Registry, petition the Department for removal of the sanction or finding from the Registry. In order to remove the sanction or finding from the Registry, the Department must determine that the employment and personal history of the individual does not reflect a pattern of abusive behavior or neglect, and that the neglect involved in the original finding was a single occurrence.