credit checks

Nurses General Nursing

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What kind of background checks do employers of nurses do? I mean I know we've always been told they check your background - and anything that's old -older than 10 years they ignore, and all that. But what about credit checks?

I mean obviously if you've been in school without medical insurance or something you might have unpaid medical bills - lots of students do. Do they look at that when considering whether to hire you?

A friend of mine says she wasn't hired because she thinks they saw that she owed them money. I thought about it and wondered whether the hiring department would even have access to that info -except for when they do your background check - but then again - if you owe money -that would be why you are looking for work - so it would be kind of unfair if they were allowed to not hire on that basis....lol -

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Employers are allowed to not hire people for whatever reasons they choose, as long as they're not violating state or Federal employment law. I can certainly understand refusing to hire someone who owes the organization money, esp. if the individual is not paying it back promptly or as previously negotiated. As for credit checks, there has been a trend for quite a number of years for some healthcare (and other) employers to do standard credit checks (same as when you apply for a loan or mortgage) on potential employees in addition to the traditional background/legal checks. The thought, whether right or wrong, is that people with checkered financial backgrounds are poor risks as employees.

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Specializes in PICU, Sedation/Radiology, PACU.

Here is a recently bumped post from a few years back. Credit checks have been part of pre-employment screening for years and years. This thread provides some insight as to why:

https://allnurses.com/general-nursing-discussion/credit-checks-and-594485-page2.html

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Well aware that they CAN do credit checks, and that it is LEGAL to do it. The question comes in when she asked whether or not a hospital would see that she had unpaid medical bills from being a poor uninsured student, and not hire her based on that.

That does not say anything what so ever about being a poor risk as an employee. We're not talking about credit cards, or car loans etc. We're talking about the fact that she had a sick daughter, and was sick herself, and being a student without insurance had no way to pay for it, and slipped through the cracks of getting assistance due to her student loans -which were enough to help live on while she was in school, but no where near enough to cover medical bills.

So she is worried that hospitals she is applying to would not hire her because she has medical bills - this to me would be a huge travesty. With todays medical costs - what student COULD pay a huge medical bill if something like that happened?

I was always told that they used it just to verify basic info - but like I said - they can get that from your criminal background check, or your employment history. They really don't need your credit check for that.

That would be absolutely horrible to disqualify someone for medical bills. How is a NURSE supposed to pay them if they won't hire them??? Does this mean she went to nursing school for nothing?

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pretty sure I read that - it was helpful -but info I knew already - I know its legal, and I know they can check it - BUT I didn't think they would actually use that to tell if you were acceptable as an employee - especially if they are MEDICAL bills. People don't CHOOSE to get sick. Its not like a credit card, or frivolous spending. And with medical costs being what they are, her being a student - nurse in fact - how is a nurse with unpaid medical bills supposed to get a job then to pay the bills with?????

Just doesn't seem fair to do that to people.

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somebody having bad credit does NOT in any way automatically say anything about them as a person.

I went through a divorce, had two kids, got a lot of stuff dumped on my credit - still working through it.

A friend of mine had her ex-husband file bankruptcy, and a bunch of creditors came after her for his bills because they weren't officially divorced yet and he went out and bought a bunch of equipment and didn't pay for it.

And if they are medical bills, etc - they can't choose to be sick or not. And even with insurance these days - heck my sister has insurance, and because its the beginning of the year right now - her deductible isn't paid - she had to pay $461 for ONE inhaler for her son with asthma!!!

credit reports don't say anything about whether that person is a good employee -there are plenty of good employees with bad credit, and lots of debt. Sometimes they are the BEST employees because they obviously need the job.

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I've had to explain credit issues from years back to an employer. I had to explain exactly what happened and why it happened. It was pretty intrusive but my explanation was acceptable and I got the job.

If it comes up, she can always provide a letter explaining the reason for the collections in her name.

I think they see it as a reliability thing (that's how it was explained to me). People who have a ton of unpaid bills may not be as responsible.

One can argue that someone with a lot of debt would be exceptionally more likely to show up at work to pay off those bills, but I don't think that's how it looks on paper.

ETA: my issue was not the same as hers but they were medically related and taken care of. They needed to see that effort was being made to make good on debt, mine was completely paid off but they said they would settle for proof of recent payment history, didn't matter if it was 20/month. It showed that effort was made to resolve the issue.

You seem pretty worked up about it, I think you will be fine (or your friend)

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I mean though, don't unpaid bills have to be pretty old and sent to collections for it to show up on your credit report anyway?

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somebody having bad credit does NOT in any way automatically say anything about them as a person ...

credit reports don't say anything about whether that person is a good employee -there are plenty of good employees with bad credit, and lots of debt. Sometimes they are the BEST employees because they obviously need the job.

You can believe that, I can believe that, everyone here can believe that, but that doesn't change the fact that a lot of employers feel differently.

You started off by saying that your friend is concerned she didn't get hired at the hospital to which she owes money because of the debt; to how many other organizations is she applying? Lots of people can't get a job at a particular hospital for lots of different reasons; fortunately, there are lots of healthcare employers "out there." I hope she isn't focusing on just that one employer.

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Specializes in ICU.

That is not why your friend did not get a job. Did they actually offer your friend the job? Did she have a job offer in hand?? They don't do the credit and background check until after they decide to hire you. Then they do the background, credit, and physical. Think of how cost prohibitive it would be to do it on potential hires? Very. Your friend may have had an interview, but I highly doubt she had an actual offer.

I went through a divorce a couple of years ago. My ex destroyed my credit as a way to make me dependent on him so I would not leave him. That way he could cheat on me and I wouldn't go anywhere. I found out later all of the bills he did not pay.

Guess what? I got a job and started last week. They checked my credit. It was not a big deal. But, I will also say since my divorce, I've worked my butt off and have raised my credit score. I have not had a late bill in over 2 years now. But, there are things on there from when I was married. But also, if there is a collection agency on there it just states who the collection agency is, not who the original debt belongs to. So they would most likely not know she owed them money.

Im going to say it had something to do with her interview itself.

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There are some misconceptions of the credit check that some employers do.

Generally, they are not just looking at the FICO score but they are looking at what debts you owe and your ability to pay those debts off. Sometimes there is a hard number like a minimum of 600 or something but generally they are looking deeper at your financial situation.

What they are trying to screen for are those employees who could potentially have a greater than normal susceptibility to theft or bribery.

Highly doubt your friend's debt to the hospital was an issue.

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not worked up - just the first couple responses were giving me answers to questions about "whether they CAN check your credit" - that I already knew. I also already knew it was legal. I was looking for other details that applied to my friends situation - and yes, it is my friend. Not worked up - just trying to get answers to the right questions, rather than answers to ones I didn't ask.

I understand they CAN do that - but the whole jist of background checks when bills were passed allowing it - was to be sure people being hired for certain jobs weren't criminals - like if you were applying to a bank - credit checks matter more.

However - preventing people with negative credit from employment simply because they MIGHT be a bad risk based on medical bills - in THIS time when NO ONE is immune really anymore from having medical bills on their credit -if you have any issues at all or have kids, or have high deductibles etc - I mean that would be an injustice in my opinion for people to be judged on their credit score and something I think lawmakers need to take another look at.

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