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Home < Health < Child Care and Health Facilities
Health Occupations Credentialing
Marla Rhoden, Director
1000 SW Jackson, Suite 200
Topeka, KS 66612
Phone: (785) 296-1281
FAX: (785) 296-3075Kansas law recognizes over 30 health occupational groups for which licensing, registration, or certification is provided. There are 11 regulatory bodies that issue credentials to those professions. Health Occupations Credentialing issues licenses to dietitians, speech-language pathologists, audiologists, and adult care home administrators. Certification programs administered by HOC include nurse aides, home health aides, and medication aides. Other related professions or paraprofessions administered through this section include operators of residential care facilities or assisted living facilities, activities directors, and social service designees for adult care homes in Kansas.
The state of Kansas began requiring operators of adult care homes, home health agencies and staffing agencies to assure that no one worked in those settings who had a criminal history of a prescribed list of crimes. This legislation went into effect July 1, 1997 and the enforcement of "prohibited" criminal histories began in 1998. In a partnership between the Kansas Department of Health and Environment and the Kansas Bureau of Investigation, operators submit information on each person for whom they request a criminal record check to the Health Occupations Credentialing Criminal Record Check program. HOC is linked to the KBI through a telecommunications system which provides initial data on each person for whom there is a record check requested. The information from KBI then provides the basis upon which operators are guided in determining a person's eligibility to work in that setting. HOC provides the data entry of these requests, processes the information received back from KBI, and notifies the operators when a criminal record indicates the person should not be employed.
The Credentialing Review Program administered by HOC is a screening mechanism for the Kansas Legislature. Applications for health care professions seeking registration, certification, or state licensure are reviewed by a technical committee, which conducts hearings to receive public input. The committee then forwards its findings to the Secretary of Health and Environment. The Secretary makes recommendations to the legislature and the legislature makes the final decision.
