Attorney General and nurses group back technical fix to Board of Nursing background-check statute

Vice Chair Dieter called House Bill 440 for its second hearing. Heather Plahuta of the Attorney General's office said the FBI had identified statutory language in the Ohio Revised Code as insufficiently specific about who may receive Board of Nursing criminal-record-check results; HB 440 would revise that language to align with federal standards and preserve uninterrupted background-check operations. Plahuta noted the bill includes an emergency clause and asked the committee to act expeditiously.

Kelly Hikes, director of government relations and advocacy for the Ohio Nurses Association, testified as an interested party. Hikes said ONA supports the bill's intent to ensure qualified individuals are licensed and that expanded checks can help protect patients, but urged caution regarding workforce impacts and cost for nurses. She emphasized that the bill follows Ohio's fair-chance law so convictions would not automatically bar licensure without a demonstrated nexus to practice and urged confidentiality for investigations to avoid stigma.

Members asked whether the problem prompting the bill is widespread in Ohio and whether additional checks would duplicate existing renewal reporting. Hikes said she did not have precise incidence data in hand but that the board has previously required proactive reporting and that additional checks are not intended to be punitive; she offered to follow up with BCI for data. The committee concluded the second hearing and invited members to review written testimony submitted to committee devices.