Nevada caregiver background checks: fingerprints within 10 days, through NABS

NABS and the fingerprint account

HCQC says agencies "must utilize Nevada’s Automated Background Check System (NABS) to conduct background checks of all new employees and existing employees due for their five-year background check" (HCQC FAQ 4). NABS is HCQC’s Nevada Automated Background Check System; the Department of Public Safety (DPS) runs the fingerprint side.

• Training first. An agency can open its Department of Public Safety fingerprint account only after it receives its license. New applicants first take HCQC’s NABS training (about 1 hour 20 minutes). (HCQC FAQ 2-3)
• The license before the account. "The Department of Public Safety will not accept your civil applicant application without a copy of your license." (HCQC FAQ 13) By our reading, staff you hire before the license is issued are entered as soon as the account is open; the 10-day clock in the statute cannot run through NABS until then. How HCQC treats that gap is on our list of questions for HCQC.
• Electronic prints. "We strongly encourage you to submit fingerprints electronically", because rejections are less likely and results faster (HCQC FAQ 5).
• Rejected prints. HCQC says rejected fingerprints are retaken on a manual card and resubmitted within 10 days with the rejected paperwork; after a second rejection the agency may ask for a name check. (HCQC FAQ 20)
• Only the licensing route. HCQC says a personal criminal history check, or a check under any other law, is not accepted when it reviews your records at an inspection (HCQC FAQ 4).

Old section numbers. HCQC’s FAQ still says "Only NRS 449.123 can be used for this purpose" (HCQC FAQ 4). For personal care agencies, AB 519 moved those rules into NRS chapter 449B in 2025, and the staff check is now NRS 449B.310 (AB 519). By our reading the FAQ means the same check; this page quotes the current sections.

People checked recently

Two exceptions save a repeat of the 10-day steps:

• Fingerprinted in the past 6 months. The 10-day steps are not needed for a person whose fingerprints went to the Central Repository for an FBI report within the past 6 months, with no listed conviction. (NRS 449B.310(2)) HCQC explains how this works in NABS: for someone already found Eligible, you may "recheck the registries and if there are no disqualifying registry findings hire the individual without fingerprinting him/her again", or add a new application with fingerprints. The choice cannot be reversed (HCQC FAQ 7).
• Fingerprinted by a licensing board or staffing service in the past 5 years. Apart from proof of any required license, the 10-day steps are not needed if the person agrees to the agency receiving conviction notices, a professional licensing board or temporary staffing service submitted their fingerprints within the past 5 years, and the FBI report showed no listed conviction. (NRS 449B.310(3)) By our reading, this mostly helps with licensed nurses or nursing assistants you employ, and with workers a temporary staffing service has fingerprinted.

By our reading, neither exception changes the 5-year repeat, and proof of the earlier check belongs with the person’s background check records, as other documentation of the check (NRS 449B.330(1)(c)).

Results, and when the 30 days apply

The Central Repository decides whether the person has a listed conviction and tells you and the Division at once (NRS 449B.310(6)). In NABS the answer arrives as one of three results (HCQC FAQ 20).

Eligible

The person may work. File the NABS clearance letter (HCQC FAQ 9).

Not Eligible: a listed conviction

The statute says "the administrator of, or the person licensed to operate, the agency shall terminate the employment or contract of that person", or notify the temporary staffing service that its worker is prohibited from providing services (NRS 449B.340(1)). The same applies to evidence of a listed conviction from any other source.

• If the person disputes it. A person who believes the information is incorrect may tell you straight away. You then give them "a reasonable amount of time of not less than 30 days to correct the information received from the Central Repository" before ending the job (NRS 449B.340(2)). HCQC says the challenge form goes from NABS to DPS, and that the time to correct ends with NABS’s appeals ending notice, "indicating the time to correct has lapsed (45 days)" (HCQC FAQ 18). By our reading, 45 days meets the statute’s floor of 30.
• If the person agrees the record is right. There is no correction period. HCQC says "A person that is found to be Not Eligible and does not challenge the results because the information is correct must be terminated immediately." (HCQC FAQ 11), and "Not Eligible" responses should only be challenged if the applicant believes the information is incorrect. (FAQ 11).
• While a challenge runs. An agency that has complied is also not liable just because the person worked during the correction period, or because it acted on inaccurate Central Repository information; but no unsupervised contact with a child during that period. (NRS 449B.340(3)) HCQC says the person may then work only with client safety steps in place, the same as for an undetermined result below (HCQC FAQ 11; NAC 449.0113(3)).

Undetermined: the check could not be finished

If the Central Repository cannot finish a check, the agency notifies the person within 10 working days to supply information within 30 days, and protects clients meanwhile by leave, direct supervision or an investigation. (NAC 449.0113) Unlike Not Eligible, HCQC says every undetermined result must be challenged by the person (HCQC FAQ 11). Someone who willfully fails to do what the notice requires is terminated (NAC 449.0113). Meanwhile the agency "shall take actions to ensure the safety of its patients, residents or clients, including" placing the person on leave, direct supervision and observation while caring for any client, or an investigation of the record, or a mix (NAC 449.0113).

Later convictions

The Central Repository "may maintain an electronic image of fingerprints submitted pursuant to NRS 449B.300 and 449B.310 to notify" you and the Division of a later conviction (NRS 449B.330(4)). By our reading, a notice like that is evidence under NRS 449B.340(1), and the same steps apply.

Temporary staffing services and contractors

Workers from a temporary employment service are checked within 10 days of being accepted, like your own hires (NRS 449B.310(1)). Your agreement with the service must also require it to:

• "Provide proof that each employee of the temporary employment service whom it may send to provide services to the agency has been continuously employed by the temporary employment service since the last investigation" (NRS 449B.320(2)(a)); and
• "notify the agency if the investigation conducted of an employee of the temporary employment service pursuant to NRS 449B.310 has not been conducted within the immediately preceding 5 years." (NRS 449B.320(2)(b))

The agency tells a temporary staffing service when one of its workers is found ineligible. (NRS 449B.310(7)) The service then may not send that person to you again, "if the temporary employment service has received notice from such an agency that the employee of the temporary employment service is ineligible to provide such services" (NRS 449B.320(1)). HCQC says contractors and temporary staffing workers are screened through NABS too (HCQC FAQ 17).

Contracted attendants meet the same qualification, check, training and file rules as employees (NAC 449.3963; NRS 449B.465). CareRulebook’s manual covers the agreements in Policy 4.10.

Records, and the 5-year repeat

• What the statute requires. A copy of the fingerprints or proof of electronic submission, the written authorization, proof the prints went to the Central Repository, and any other documentation of the check, "Maintained for the period of the employment of the person with the agency" and open to the Division at any reasonable time, with copies on request (NRS 449B.330(1)-(2)).
• What HCQC adds. HCQC lists the records to keep: proof of fingerprinting, the signed waiver and self-disclosure form, the clearance letter, and a current staff list in NABS. (HCQC FAQ 9) HCQC’s workbook lists the criminal background check among the personnel file items it looks for (workbook, P0130).
• In each attendant’s personnel file. Each attendant’s personnel file holds evidence that the administrator or licensee complied with the background check law for that attendant. (NAC 449.3976(1)(e), as amended by R089-24) CareRulebook’s manual keeps a personnel file checklist in Policy 4.4.
• Every 5 years. "At least once every 5 years after the date of the initial investigation." (NRS 449B.310(4)(b)) A background check log with each person’s check date makes the repeat easy to schedule.
• At renewal. Each renewal includes "a statement that the agency is in compliance with the provisions of NRS 449B.300 to 449B.340, inclusive, and 449B.440" (NRS 449B.210(2)).
• Nurses and nursing assistants. If you employ any, you also keep a record of their work assignments for at least 5 years (NRS 632.4725).

The health side of the personnel file (the health certificate and TB tests) is on Nevada caregiver training.

Who pays

• Staff checks. The Central Repository may charge the agency a fee for each check. The agency may recover no more than half of that fee from the employee or contractor, and if it does, must let them pay in installments (NRS 449B.310(7)).
• Temporary staffing workers. The agency may require a temporary staffing service to pay the Central Repository fee for its workers. (NRS 449B.310(7))
• Owners. HCQC says "The applicant is responsible for paying the background check costs, including the costs to be fingerprinted, state and federal background checks." (HCQC FAQ 14).
• Medicaid. Nevada Medicaid’s personal care rate already covers background checks and TB testing; they are not reimbursed separately. (MSM 3503.7)

We have not found a published fee amount for these checks in the sources we saved, so we do not quote one. HCQC’s FAQ describes the NABS choice to pay for new fingerprints when you add an application (HCQC FAQ 7).

The owners’ own checks

Separately from staff checks, each applicant for the license submits one set of fingerprints to the Central Repository for an FBI report, and the Central Repository tells the Division whether the applicant has a conviction listed in NRS 449B.440(1)(a) (NRS 449B.300). HCQC’s checklist says "Each owner that owns 10% or more is required to do a background check", with a fingerprint waiver uploaded to the application for each one (HCQC Licensing Checklist). A listed conviction is a ground on which the Division may deny the license (NRS 449B.440(1)).

By our reading, if an owner also works in the agency, as administrator or attendant, the staff check applies to them as an employee too, once the fingerprint account is open. An owner fingerprinted for the application within the past 6 months may fall under the 6-month exception above. The whole application is on the Nevada license application.