March 08, 2019
The electronic processing of fingerprints for those staff required to have a criminal background check through Fieldprint is scheduled to begin this Spring. You should have received this
letter and attached training schedule from the Office of Human Resources at DBHDS.
If you did not receive the letter, contact Malinda Roberts at malinda.roberts@dbhds.virginia.gov to update your contact information.
There are, at this point, a number of concerns, questions and misunderstandings – we will attempt to address some of them and recommend that you read the
Guidance which was included with the letter. During a productive discussion with DBHDS staff this afternoon, we have confirmed:
- Fieldprint is currently negotiating contracts for additional sites in some of the more challenging locations; they have also added an appropriate number of customer service staff to handle increased call volume.
- There will be an option for the larger providers (120 or more new hires per year) to request to be invoiced. The invoices are more easily reconciled than the credit card statement. The reasons are many and not necessarily because of Fieldprint. We recommend that any larger employer insist upon being invoiced.
- The contract and attached Schedule B are still confusing. We do think that DBHDS is trying to work this out with Fieldprint, but can not guarantee they will be successful. The Guidance document recommends that you read the contract carefully!
- There is a fee ($8.72) charged by Fieldprint for the service. If an appointment is cancelled with less than 24 hours notice or an appointment is missed, the agency will be responsible for that fee and only that fee. If payment has been made by credit card at the time the appointment is scheduled, Fieldprint will refund the remainder of the $58.72 paid. Of course, the agency can charge that back to the employee!
- Experience tells us that some new hires do not complete their orientation/training; that suggests that the scheduling of the Fieldprint appointment should probably not occur until after several days of orientation and training!
- The Fieldprint contract does include (as do most contracts) provisions for the contract to be cancelled by either party. If, for example, a provider’s contract was cancelled because of a billing dispute, the option would remain for new hires to be processed through the “applicant pay” option. Of course, if something catastrophic happened and Fieldprint could not process, DBHDS would have our backs and reinstate the paper process!
- The material which will be received from DBHDS regarding the results will not change. State criminal history records will be provided as they are now along with the letter from the Department.