Health care facility employees.
HB 1385 amends Indiana law governing who may be employed as a nurse aide or other unlicensed employee by a health care facility, or by an entity that contracts to supply those workers. The bill expands and clarifies the list of disqualifying criminal histories that can bar employment, including sex crimes, exploitation or failure to report abuse of an endangered adult, murder, voluntary manslaughter, involuntary manslaughter within the last five years, felony battery within the last five years, and certain controlled-substance felonies within the last five years. It also continues to prohibit employment of individuals with findings of patient abuse, neglect, mistreatment, or misappropriation of patient property that have been entered into the state nurse aide registry.
The bill also creates a penalty for applicants who knowingly or intentionally apply for these jobs after a disqualifying conviction, making that conduct a Class A infraction. An exception is preserved for certain people with controlled-substance felony histories who are certified peer recovery coaches, provided they have no later felony drug convictions and no pending felony drug charges. The effective date for the amendments is July 1, 2025.
The bill’s impact is to tighten hiring restrictions in Indiana’s health care workforce, especially for facilities that employ nurse aides and other unlicensed staff who may have direct contact with vulnerable patients. It affects health care facilities, staffing agencies, applicants for unlicensed caregiving roles, and the state nurse aide registry by reinforcing criminal-history screening and registry-based disqualification rules.
The overall sentiment appears strongly supportive and noncontroversial. The bill passed the House 87-0, the Senate 47-0, and the House concurred with Senate amendments by a wide margin, 91-2. That voting pattern suggests broad bipartisan agreement that the measure improves patient safety and workforce screening standards.
There is little evidence of major contention in the available record. The only likely point of policy tension is the balance between protecting patients and limiting employment opportunities for people with prior convictions, particularly those with older theft or drug-related offenses. The peer recovery coach exception indicates an effort to preserve a pathway into health care-adjacent work for people in recovery, while still maintaining safety-related restrictions.
HB 1385 amends IC 16-28-13-3 to expand and refine the criminal-history and registry-based disqualifications for employing nurse aides and other unlicensed employees in Indiana health care facilities or related staffing entities. It adds or reaffirms specific offenses that bar employment, sets time-limited restrictions for some offenses, and makes knowingly applying after a disqualifying conviction a Class A infraction. The bill takes effect July 1, 2025, and directly affects hiring practices, background screening, and compliance obligations for health care employers and staffing contractors.
The bill appears to have enjoyed broad bipartisan support and little visible opposition. It passed the House unanimously on third reading, passed the Senate unanimously on third reading, and then received near-unanimous House concurrence with Senate amendments. The vote totals suggest the measure was viewed as a patient-safety and workforce-integrity bill rather than a controversial policy change.
No committee testimony or recorded debate is provided, and the vote history shows minimal disagreement. The main policy tradeoff implicit in the bill is between protecting vulnerable patients in health care settings and preserving employment access for people with prior convictions, especially those involving theft, controlled substances, or older violent offenses. The peer recovery coach exception suggests some concern about not excluding people in recovery from employment opportunities, but there is no sign that this became a major point of contention in the legislative record provided.