Criminal background check API for healthcare & home care
One API call from intake, HR or scheduling across jail bookings, state corrections, courts, warrants and federal custody, scored on date of birth and cited to the jurisdiction. The $0.15 data call answers intake and site-safety checks; caregiver hiring runs as an FCRA order. A BAA is signed before the first search.
25 free searches, no card. $0.15 a call, no platform fee, no seats, no minimum. No integration yet? The same search runs from the dashboard.
curl https://api.offendersearch.app/v1/criminal/search \ -H "X-API-Key: $OFFENDERSEARCH_KEY" \ -H "Content-Type: application/json" \ -d '{"query": {"firstName": "Marta", "lastName": "Reyes", "dob": "1952-03-14"}}' // response { "status": "complete", "counts": { "records": 0, "sourcesIncomplete": 0 }, "records": [] } // a record carries its type and status { "recordType": "criminal_record", "currentStatus": "released", "matchState": "dob_match", "matchConfidence": 0.96, "matchBasis": "lastName:exact firstName:exact dob:match" }
Healthcare criminal background check workflow. A data call for safety checks, an FCRA order when a hire is decided.
Decide which path the check is on. Resident intake, contractor badges and site safety use the $0.15 data call. Anything that decides whether a caregiver is hired goes to an FCRA order.
Send name and date of birth. One POST across 1,164 live jurisdictions: county jails, state corrections, courts, warrants and federal custody.
Branch on record type and status. An active warrant and a disposed case from 2009 are different facts. Read recordType, currentStatus, matchConfidence and matchBasis.
For hires, use an FCRA order. Consent and disclosure, the check, dispute handling and adverse-action steps, placed by your screening company on FCRA Partner Access.
Store it for the surveyor. Every search kept with its per-jurisdiction outcome, exportable as a verification report.
Healthcare criminal background check API: request and response. One POST per person, or the same search from the dashboard with no code.
curl https://api.offendersearch.app/v1/criminal/search \ -H "X-API-Key: $OFFENDERSEARCH_KEY" \ -H "Content-Type: application/json" \ -d '{"query": {"firstName": "Marta", "lastName": "Reyes", "dob": "1952-03-14"}}' // response { "status": "complete", "counts": { "records": 0, "sourcesIncomplete": 0 }, "records": [] } // a record carries its type and status { "recordType": "criminal_record", "currentStatus": "released", "matchState": "dob_match", "matchConfidence": 0.96, "matchBasis": "lastName:exact firstName:exact dob:match" }
| Person | Checked for | Result | Answered |
|---|---|---|---|
| Marta Reyes | intake | No record | 1,164 |
| Jordan Sample | intake | Court case · year_match | 1,164 |
| J. Sample | intake | Warrant · dob_match | 1,164 |
Criminal API docs › · Search from the dashboard › · Bulk criminal record search ›
When hospitals, clinics, and home health agencies run a criminal background check. Each moment on its path: the data call or the FCRA order.
At resident or patient admission
Facilities with an admission policy screen at intake so they can plan supervision and room assignment.
When a contractor or vendor badge is issued
Trades, vendors and couriers with unit access checked against the site’s written safety rule.
Before a caregiver is hired
Aides, CNAs, nurses and therapists screened through an order: consent, the check, the report, and adverse-action steps if needed.
Across the active roster
A criminal person monitor sends a signed alert on a new booking, warrant or case. Any employment action that follows runs through an FCRA order.
What a healthcare criminal background check covers. Five record layers, scored on date of birth and cited to the jurisdiction on every record.
| Record type | What the compliance file learns | Coverage |
|---|---|---|
| Jail bookings | A recent arrest and booking: charges, booking date, in custody or released. A booking is not a conviction. | 1,408 county rosters · 1027 live |
| State corrections | State custody, parole or release, with the facility and release date. | 53 systems |
| Court cases | Filed charges and how they ended: dismissed, convicted, disposed. | 36 court sources |
| Warrants | An open warrant, the issuing jurisdiction and its status today. | 34 warrant sources |
| Federal custody | Federal custody, or release from it. | searched live |
Criminal screening challenges for hospitals, clinics, and home health agencies
- Criminal records live in thousands of county jails, courts and warrant systems, not one list.
- Caregivers move between states and agencies; a single-county search misses where they lived before.
- A booking, a dismissed case and an active warrant mean very different things to a compliance file.
- Hiring checks carry FCRA duties that a safety lookup does not, and the two have to be kept apart.
What criminal background checks give hospitals, clinics, and home health agencies
Jail, corrections, courts, warrants and federal custody in one call. No per-county integrations to build or maintain.
Record type and status on every hit, so a reviewer sees "active warrant" or "released 2014", not a wall of names.
An FCRA path for hires, through your screening company, kept apart from intake.
A surveyor-ready record. Every check stored with each jurisdiction that answered.
Hiring a caregiver? Run the criminal background check as an FCRA order.
When a result will help decide whether to hire or engage an aide, nurse or therapist, the check is a consumer report. It runs as an FCRA order through FCRA Partner Access, placed by a background screening company or screening platform under a written FCRA agreement: disclosure and consent, the check, a copy of the report and a summary of rights before any adverse action, and a dispute path for the person.
The $0.15 criminal search is for safety checks. It is not a consumer report, and standard results are never the reason an applicant is turned away.
The screening company attests the applicant’s disclosure and authorization on the order.
Exact date of birth only; the seven-year rule and state limits applied before anything is furnished.
Records with verification time; withheld items as counts by reason.
The applicant sees the report in the consumer portal and can dispute any item.
Pre-adverse notice with the report, a waiting period, then a final notice, by the employer.
Criminal background check practices for hospitals, clinics, and home health agencies. Record what you checked, not just what you found.
| Jail | County rosters · answered | 0 |
| DOC | State corrections · answered | 0 |
| Court | Court sources · answered | 0 |
| Warrant | Warrant sources · answered | 0 |
| Federal | Federal custody · answered | 0 |
Keep the fingerprint check. Where a state requires a fingerprint-based check for direct-care workers, it still runs through the state. The search adds the county jails, courts and warrants it can miss.
Match on date of birth. dob_match, year_match and age_match are labelled apart, so a common-name hit never reads like an identification.
Weigh status, not just history. Active or cleared warrant, in custody or released, open or disposed case: the one fact a reviewer acts on.
One partial is never a clear. counts.sourcesIncomplete says whether every live jurisdiction answered. If one did not, the check can be re-run.
Healthcare criminal screening: what the law requires and what it doesn’t
Most states require a fingerprint-based criminal history check for direct-care workers, run through a designated state agency. A commercial search does not replace that step; it covers the county jails, courts and warrants a fingerprint check can miss, and the residents and contractors it never reaches.
When a hire is being decided, the FCRA governs the check, and fair-chance laws in many states and cities govern when criminal history may be asked about and how it is weighed.
| Jurisdiction | Citation | What it requires |
|---|---|---|
| Federal | 15 U.S.C. § 1681b(b)(2) | Before a consumer report is obtained for employment purposes: a clear written disclosure in a stand-alone document and the applicant’s written authorization. |
| Federal | 15 U.S.C. § 1681b(b)(3) | Before adverse action based on the report: a copy of the report and a summary of the applicant’s rights. |
| Federal | EEOC guidance, 2012 | An arrest alone is not proof of conduct; weigh the nature of the offense, the time elapsed and the nature of the job. |
| Florida | Fla. Stat. § 435.04 | Level 2 screening is a fingerprint-based state and national criminal history check, run through the state. |
| States and cities | Fair-chance laws | Limit when criminal history may be asked about in hiring, and often require an individualized review. |
And what it doesn’t
Medicare’s home health conditions of participation contain no aide criminal-screening requirement of their own; where the duty exists it is state law, insurer or payer contract.
Background, not legal advice. Your counsel is the right reader of your own facts.
Criminal and sex offender records for healthcare & home care, on one key. Plus monitoring between checks and an FCRA order path for the people you hire.
Sex offender screening
58 US registries, 1.5M records, continuously updated, with the registry photo where one is published.
Sex offender screening for healthcare & home care ›Criminal and registry monitoring
People watched between checks. A new booking, warrant or case arrives by signed webhook or email; any employment action that follows runs through an FCRA order.
Monitoring API ›FCRA background check API
When a hire is being decided, the check runs as an FCRA order with consent, disclosure, dispute and adverse-action steps. Pricing is quoted per partner.
Background check API ›Criminal: 1,545 jurisdictions catalogued, 1,164 live, 51 states + DC + federal. Registry: 58 US registries, 1.5M records, continuously updated. See what each state publishes or the live list at /v1/criminal/sources.
One BAA for the registry and the criminal check
An account admin signs the Business Associate Agreement in the dashboard before the first search, and every check, registry or criminal, is stored with its query, timestamp and per-jurisdiction outcome.
Compliance posture for a healthcare buyer
Business Associate Agreement. Signed by an account admin in the dashboard under Compliance, or scoped by counsel on request. HIPAA & BAA ›
Stored, exportable audit trail. Every search kept with query, timestamp, per-source outcome and reviewer. Trust & security ›
Team workspaces and access control. Admissions and HR in separate workspaces on an enterprise plan, net-30 or net-60 invoicing. Enterprise on pricing ›
Security review answered in writing. Questionnaires, data handling and subprocessors through the security contact. Contact ›
What a healthcare criminal background check costs. $0.15 a call, $0.11 past 2,000 a month; FCRA orders quoted per partner.
| Line | How it is counted | Units | Rate | Cost |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Resident and patient intake checks | data call, under the admission policy | 2,500 | $0.15 → $0.11 | $355.00 |
| Contractor and vendor checks | data call, at badge issue | 500 | $0.11 | $55.00 |
| Criminal person monitors | the active caregiver roster | 800 | $3 / mo | $2,400.00 |
| FCRA orders for hiring decisions | quoted per partner | as used | contact | — |
| Month | no platform fee, no seats, no minimum | 3,000 calls | $2,810.00 |
| Checks / month | Cost | Per check |
|---|---|---|
| 500 | $75.00 | $0.1500 |
| 5,000 | $630.00 | $0.1260 |
| 50,000 | $5,580.00 | $0.1116 |
Criminal and registry calls count toward the same tier. A batch is billed per row, so a roster re-screen costs the same per person as a single lookup. Enterprise plans add custom volume rates and net terms. A fraction of what legacy screening platforms charge.
Healthcare criminal background check FAQ
More in the criminal API docs and the FCRA orders docs.
Can we use the $0.15 criminal search to decide whether to hire a caregiver?
No. A hiring decision runs as an FCRA order, with consent, disclosure, dispute handling and adverse-action steps. The data call is for safety checks at intake and on site; standard results are never the reason an applicant is turned away.
Does this replace the state fingerprint check?
No. Where a state requires a fingerprint-based check through its designated agency, that still runs. The search adds county jails, courts, warrants and federal custody across every state a caregiver may have lived in.
Do we need a BAA?
Only if you send protected health information. A BAA is available and signed before the first search; the check itself needs only a name and date of birth.
Related
Run criminal background checks for healthcare & home care with one API
Jail bookings, corrections, courts, warrants and federal custody in one call, an FCRA path for hires, and a BAA before the first search. 25 free searches, no card.