NOTIVUS - Employee Credentialing Systems - Background Credentialing Systems - Vendor Screening

2010-09-25T09:47:00.000-07:00

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Information Services Industry Leader Scott Greenough Appointed Chief Operating Officer of Notivus

2010-09-11T07:00:00.000-07:00

Atlanta, Georgia (Business Wire) September 13, 2010 -- Notivus announced today that Scott Greenough has been appointed EVP and Chief Operating Officer. Mr. Greenough previously served as Senior VP and Business Line Executive at First Advantage. Mr. Greenough will focus on Notivus’ product suite, key customer implementations and the execution of its long-term growth plan.

Mr. Greenough has more than 25 years of management experience in the Pre-employment and Information Services Industry, having had key executive roles within Equifax, ChoicePoint and First Advantage. Throughout his career, he has demonstrated his ability to manage highly complex customer solutions, develop new product innovations and lead large groups of people toward a common objective. Mr. Greenough was once recognized by ChoicePoint CEO as their Pre-employment division’s "secret weapon".

David Cook, CEO of Notivus commented, "Having worked with Scott over the last 20 years, I know that he posses the exact leadership and skills that Notivus needs as we look confidently to the future. Scott is admired in the industry for his deep management expertise, strong customer orientation, excellent people skills, and firm understanding of the challenges facing employers of all sizes."

Scott Greenough commented, "I was highly attracted to the innovative culture and ground-breaking technology that exists at Notivus. This coupled with the talented and experienced executive team, positions the company to effectively address the current and future challenges facing customers in the market."

About Notivus

Notivus provides on-demand Enterprise Credentialing software solutions. The company’s proprietary technology assists companies to securely register, process and credential their vendors, contractors and employees. The system allows companies to streamline and reduce the cost of onboarding, increase visibility to critical human assets and ensure compliance. The product suite includes Notivus Onboarding, Notivus Analytics and Notivus Gateway. Notivus is managed by an executive team with over 100 years of combined experience in the design and delivery of employment screening and vendor compliance programs. For more information, visit www.notivus.com.

Bad nurses able to keep working in other states

2010-08-16T11:09:00.000-07:00

By Tracy Weber and Charles Ornstein ProPublica

Nurse Craig Peske was fired from a hospital in Wausau, Wis., in 2007 after stealing the powerful painkiller Dilaudid "whenever the opportunity arose," state records say. In one three-month period, he signed out 245 syringes full of the drug — nine times the average of his fellow nurses.

Hospital officials reported him to Wisconsin nursing regulators and alerted police.

Six months later, Peske was charged with six felony counts of narcotics possession. But by that time, he had used a special "multistate" license to get a job as a traveling nurse at a hospital 1,200 miles away in New Bern, N.C.

"When I went to go for the job in North Carolina, I looked at the status of my license, and it was still active," says Peske, 36, who was later convicted of two felony drug charges. "That kind of surprised me, so I figured I would take it."

The ease of Peske's move illustrates significant gaps in regulatory efforts nationwide to keep nurses from avoiding the consequences of misconduct by hopping across state lines.

The two states in which Peske worked are part of a 24-state compact created to help get good nurses to areas where they are needed most. Under the decade-old partnership, a license obtained in a nurse's home state allows access to work in the other compact states.

But an investigation by the non-profit news organization ProPublica found that the pact also has allowed nurses with records of misconduct to put patients in jeopardy. In some cases, nurses have retained clean multistate licenses after at least one compact state had banned them. They have ignored their patients' needs, stolen their pain medication, forgotten crucial tests or missed changes in their condition, records show.

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Critics say the compact may actually multiply the risk to patients. There is no central licensing for the compact, so policing nurses is left to the vigilance of member states.

Outside the compact, each state licenses and disciplines its own nurses. But within it, states effectively agree to allow in nurses they have never reviewed.

"While any state can make mistakes, in a single-state license system, the errors impact one state," says Genell Lee, head of Alabama's nursing board, which is not part of the compact.

By comparison, when a compact state is slow to act or fails to share information, nurses suspected of negligence or misconduct remain free to work across nearly half the country, Lee says.

Joey Ridenour, chairwoman of the compact's national board, says she believes the compact has promoted more and faster communication among states. She also says the number of compact nurses disciplined outside their home states is very small.

But compact officials do not track how many nurses are sanctioned by their primary state for misconduct elsewhere. They also don't question whether states are adequately policing visiting nurses: 10 states have disciplined three or fewer such nurses in the past decade, compact records show.

Ridenour acknowledges that the pact is only as good as the performance of its individual members. If a state has been historically lax, she says, joining the compact will not change that.

"I am very careful to say that this is not a cure-all," says Ridenour, who also is executive director of Arizona's nursing board. "I just believe it's better than what we had before."

A lack of screening

Weaknesses in the state-based system for disciplining problem nurses have surfaced as a public health issue during the past year. California, for example, revamped its nursing board and its executive officer resigned after reports of ineffective oversight that put patients at risk.

The state recently discovered that 3,500 of its nurses had been disciplined by other states but had kept clean California licenses.

With no federal licensing system, the compact has been seen as at least a partial solution for policing nurses who work in different states.

To test its effectiveness, ProPublica examined the disciplinary actions taken by five compact states — Arizona, Virginia, Texas, Kentucky and North Carolina — in recent years.

Reporters found four dozen examples of nurses whose primary licenses remained clean for months or longer after another compact state barred them from working there.

Among cases detailed in nursing board records:

•Therese Morgan, who now goes by Therese Holmes, retains a multistate license in Maryland. Arizona banned her in January 2009 after incidents at five hospitals in the Phoenix area, including failing to show up for work, flunking orientation and frightening a patient whose catheter she removed. Doctors and staff asked that she not be assigned to certain patients. Holmes could not be reached for comment, and officials from the Maryland board would not discuss the case.

•Stephen Woodfin, a nurse anesthetist, surrendered his right to practice in North Carolina in January 2006 because of substance abuse. Even so, he was able to keep a clean multistate license in Texas. Nearly two years later at a hospital in Amarillo, Texas, he passed out during a surgery, bleeding from a vein in his arm. The Texas Board of Nursing found he had abused the narcotic Fentanyl. In September 2008, the board suspended him.

He now is on probation and is limited to working in Texas. Kathy Thomas, executive director of Texas' nursing board, said she could not comment on Woodfin, who did not return calls. But Thomas noted that in some cases involving substance abuse, one of the most common reasons nurses get in trouble, discipline might not begin until after a nurse has flunked out of a confidential recovery program.

•Dayna Hickman was suspended from practicing in Texas in September 2006 after she administered undiluted vitamin K too quickly to a patient at a Dallas hospital. The patient died a short time later. The next year, Hickman was placed on probation in California because of the Texas discipline. But her multistate license in Iowa remains clear.

Hickman, who now works as a critical-care nurse in Mason City, Iowa, says she notified the Iowa nursing board about the incident in Texas. "I have an exemplary record outside of this as a nurse, so Iowa chose to not do anything," Hickman says.

The Iowa board would not comment, citing privacy restrictions.

Allegations about nurse Craig Peske's drug use did not stop once he reached North Carolina.

Within days of his arrival, a parent complained that Peske was falling asleep while attempting to insert an IV in her child. A hospital review found that he signed out the painkiller Demerol on dozens of occasions without a physician's order. When he refused a drug test, he was fired in April 2008, nursing board records show.

Six months later, North Carolina banned him from working there. But Peske's home state of Wisconsin did not revoke his multistate license until January 2009, giving him the ability to work in any of the other states until then.

Even Peske, who says he is now sober and has a job as a home inspector in Wisconsin, questions why he wasn't stopped sooner.

"Should I have been allowed to work in North Carolina? Probably not," Peske says, then adds more firmly, "No, I shouldn't have been."

Concern about gaps in licensing

Nationwide, nursing shortages have forced hospitals to rely on traveling or temporary nurses. Nurses working in one state now take medical-advice phone calls or use teleconferencing to see patients in another.

The compact is routinely touted as a success. Just last year, compact administrators said there was "no evidence" the compact compromised public protection, as the American Nurses Association asserted. But officials in non-participating states say they worry that the compact gives its members a false sense of security.

Differing laws, standards and staffing levels at state agencies, they say, make cooperation difficult. Even within the compact, state standards vary. Most states have the ability to immediately suspend a nurse's license, but some can't — even when the allegations are severe.

Likewise, some states require criminal background checks as a condition of getting a license, while others don't.

That is one reason the Ohio Board of Nursing elected not to join.

"If an applicant has been convicted of certain crimes such as murder and rape, among others, the applicant cannot be considered for licensure in Ohio," the board wrote. The majority of compact states, it noted, do not have the same tough standard.

Kansas' attorney general in 1999 wrote that the state could not legally join. If one compact state, for example, decided that "a correspondence course in aroma therapy" was all that was needed to be licensed, Kansas would be required to let those nurses in.

Two national databases — one run by the National Council of State Boards of Nursing, the second by the federal government — are supposed to alert regulators and employers to disciplined nurses. But that doesn't always happen. ProPublica has previously found discrepancies and missing records in both databases.

Amid such confusion, nurses accused of wrongdoing or incompetence keep working.

Alma Rice, 40, was able to work as a nurse in several states for seven years after she first got in trouble. Tennessee revoked her license in mid-2008 — only after she had been accused of stealing drugs at four hospitals in three states and had racked up criminal convictions in each state.

Rice had been high on the job, tried to shred patient records to conceal her thefts and hid bottles of urine in her clothes in case she was drug-tested, nursing board and court records from several states show.

A forensic psychologist in Texas wrote in 2006: "It is still doubtful that (Rice) will be able to consistently behave in accordance with ... generally accepted nursing standards."

Rice also had been indicted on charges of child abuse by a Dyer County, Tenn., grand jury in February 2008 after her 18-month-old son was found with needle marks on his arm and tested positive for a powerful anesthetic, court records and newspaper reports said. Rice called police after she forgot where she left him, a report said. She later was convicted of misdemeanor assault. Neither Rice nor her attorney returned calls or e-mails.

Shelley Walker, a spokeswoman for the Tennessee Department of Health, defends the process in Rice's case. Three states took action against her within eight months of each other, she says.

Walker and other compact officials note that nurses cannot be disciplined before they've had a chance to defend themselves.

But records show that while Tennessee and Texas were investigating, Rice was accused of stealing drugs from a hospital in Raleigh, N.C.

Nurse Krystal Bauer, like Rice, moved so fast she amassed allegations in multiple states before her home state caught up. Bauer, 37, was accused of stealing drugs in October and November 2007 while working at a hospital in Glendale, Ariz., in December 2007 while at a hospital in Weston, Wis., and in June 2008 at a hospital in Greenville, N.C.

She finally surrendered her license in her home state of Iowa in November 2008 after the other three states banned her.

Ridenour, head of the compact, says that even the best communication can't stop nurses when they are intent on manipulating the system. But she says the compact strives to elevate the licensing standards across state lines by, among other things, encouraging states to require criminal background checks.

Nurse Bauer, who said in an interview that she is sober, says the various boards' obligations to give her due process allowed her to keep moving.

"Until an investigation is closed," she says, "it's not going to look like there's anything going on."

An Increasing Number of Organizations Are Opting For Annual Screening and Credentialing of Vendors, Contractors and Employees.

2010-07-18T07:02:00.000-07:00

Atlanta, Georgia - July 18, 2010 - An increasing number of incidents reported involvement fraud has led to greater need for background screening and credentialing of employees and non-employees. As cases of fraud rise, an increasing number of organizations are conducting recurring verification of their employees and non-employees instead of one-time verifications at the time of joining the job.

According to a survey conducted by industry leaders, individuals with questionable background tend to join organizations that do not conduct background screening of their employees or contract/vendor staff. However, when these organizations do start conducting background screening, they find many discrepancies and/or suffer huge attrition, when they announce background screening.

"It is important to know that a candidate who has been background screened and found to comply with current policies, doesn't imply that that employee or vendor remains compliant in the future as well. So more and more companies are opting for screening their employees, vendors, contract staff and outsourced personnel based on the outcome of employee screening on a regular basis," commented Michael Holland of Notivus. "In addition, an organization's reputation is at stake in case they hire someone with questionable background. Thus, lack of verification, credentialing and background screening or even less number of checks conducted on current or potential employees, vendors and contract staff is something that would come back to haunt any organization. We have seen an increase of our customers that run credentialing of employees, vendors and contractors once a year."

In considering the services provided by potential suppliers and vendors, price is usually a determining factor. What about other factors that are crucial to protecting your business? Liabilities such as financial difficulties, criminal records, government sanctions and unsavory business relationships all have the potential to negatively impact your business. The ramifications of these risks could include legal issues as well as damage to your reputation and bottom line.

Credentialing on an annual basis gives you peace of mind, with tailored screening programs for your employees, vendors and contractors. Whether it’s a cleaning crew, a contractor working on your computer system, a visiting nurse, or a management consultant with access to proprietary and confidential information, you can take comfort in the fact that the people working in your facilities or providing services under your brand have been fully screened and are licensed or certified to perform at the required job level.

About Notivus
Notivus provides on-demand Enterprise Credentialing software solutions. Its product suite includes Notivus On-Boarding, Notivus Analytics and Notivus Gateway, which support medium and large enterprises in Vendor, Contractor and Employee management processes. Notivus solutions easily integrate with key customer operations for improved use of their critical Employee, Contractor and Vendor assets while providing transparency and visibility to important legal and compliance requirements. Notivus is managed by an executive team with over 100 years of combined experience in the design and delivery of employment screening and vendor compliance programs. For more information, visit www.notivus.com.

Hundreds of nurses have been punished by other states while maintaining California licenses

2010-07-08T11:08:00.000-07:00

The state's Board of Registered Nursing has discovered that some 3,500 of its nurses have been punished for misconduct by other states — hundreds even had their licenses revoked — while maintaining clean licenses in California.

As many as 2,000 of these nurses now will face discipline in California, officials estimate. That's more registered nurses than the state has sanctioned in the last four years combined.

The board's discovery was prompted by a Times/ProPublica investigation last year that found hundreds of instances in which California nurses had been sanctioned elsewhere for sexual abuse, neglect, rampant drug use and criminality but could work freely in California.

The "massive" onslaught of new disciplinary cases is going to be "a very significant challenge," said Paul Riches, a deputy director for the state Department of Consumer Affairs, which oversees the agencies that license and police health professionals.

After last year's report in The Times, California ran its list of 376,000 active and inactive nurses against a database maintained by the National Council of State Boards of Nursing, to which nearly all states voluntarily report their disciplinary actions. Among the matches were nurses who had been disciplined by multiple states, sometimes for the same incident.

California officials said they couldn't disclose the names of any nurses who turned up in the search until a formal disciplinary charge is filed in this state. While those cases are pending, the nurses remain free to practice in California.

Nurses are not required to inform the board when and where they are working, but officials said they would file emergency petitions to suspend nurses from practicing if they believed there was a public safety threat.

A review of disciplinary records by reporters easily found cases involving current California-licensed nurses, some reflecting serious misconduct. Among them:

 Marci Nablo, who surrendered her Florida nursing license in 2007 after admitting that she stole the painkiller Fentanyl from patients' pain pumps, replaced it with saline and injected the drug under her tongue. She also was accused of paying a hospital janitor for urine and hiding it in her bra so she could pass a drug test. After she stole drugs in Pennsylvania, her license in that state was suspended in 2008.

 Karen Vivian, whose license was suspended by Nebraska in 2008 after she made nine medication errors, including putting ear drops into a patient's eye. A mental health exam found that she had bipolar disorder that "made her vulnerable in the work environment," board records said. A year later, she also surrendered her Minnesota license.

 Gregory Ashmore, whose Tennessee license was revoked in 2002 after he engaged in sexual intercourse with a patient at the mental health facility where he worked.

Ashmore, who lives in the Northern California town of Fairfield, declined to comment on his case. But when asked whether he should have been disciplined by California, he said it was up to the nursing board to decide.

Vivian lives in Nebraska and is not working as a nurse. But she said she'd thought about moving to California, where her license remains clean.

She said California should know about every case involving one of its nurses, even though she considers hers less serious than drug-using nurses or those with criminal records.

"Why don't they check the national databank?" she asked. "They can get the information the same way you did.... If I'm a patient, I would want to know."

Nablo could not be reached for comment.

California's nursing board has historically done little to check whether its nurses were running into trouble anywhere. Until late 2008, the state did not require nurses, when renewing their licenses, to reveal whether they'd been disciplined elsewhere. The board checked their records against the national council's database of disciplinary actions only when they initially applied for a California license. Board President Ann Boynton said the board now plans to pay the national council to run checks of California nurses on a quarterly basis.

The risks of not checking can be serious. The Times/ProPublica investigation detailed cases in which nurses sanctioned in another state moved to California and were later accused of misconduct.

Nurse Beverley Cathey, for instance, came to California after being put on probation in North Carolina in November 2006 for failing to account for drugs she'd signed out, falsifying records and providing negligent care. Four Los Angeles-area hospitals filed six complaints against her in August and September of 2007, according to records from a temporary staffing firm that hired Cathey.

The California board did not file a public accusation against her license until August 2009, nearly two years after North Carolina indefinitely suspended her.

The nursing board has struggled to address a host of problems identified in last year's news report.

The priority has been to reduce the time it takes to discipline errant caregivers — from the more than three years reported in the Times/ProPublica investigation to less than 18 months. Until recently, nurses had been able to keep working — and getting in trouble — as complaints languished.

After the stories in The Times, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger replaced the majority of the nursing board's members and ordered broad changes in oversight of all health professionals. His budget request for more than 30 staffers to cut the board's discipline backlog is pending in the Legislature.

Board staff had said they needed nearly double that.

"It's going to be a lot on our staff," said board President Boynton, referring to 2,000 new cases.

Officials say the cases are going to be handled separately from the hundreds already being investigated or adjudicated. The attorney general's office is creating teams of attorneys in Northern and Southern California to handle the additional caseload.

These new cases should be easier to process because the alleged misconduct has been investigated and adjudicated elsewhere. But the state still needs to collect records from across the country and ensure that the investigations meet California standards, officials said. The costs can be absorbed within the nursing board's existing budget, which is funded by licensing fees, officials said.

The attorneys will focus first on the 1,743 nurses whose licenses are active in California. The licenses of more than 430 in this group have been revoked, suspended or surrendered in other states.

The state plans to flag the licenses of the remaining 1,720 nurses whose status is inactive, in case they attempt to renew them.

Other states routinely do more to learn if their nurses are getting in trouble elsewhere. Thirty-seven states and the District of Columbia provide the names of all of their nurses — whether they've been disciplined or not — to the national council's database so that if any nursing board takes action against a nurse, the other participating states can be quickly alerted.

But because California and 12 other states don't participate, it's difficult for regulators elsewhere to know if they should alert those states. Nonparticipating states license more than 40% of the nation's 3.5 million registered nurses.

California also has a financial incentive not to submit its names. The state makes money by charging nurses a fee to verify their licenses, test scores and training when authorities in other states call for information.

For example, a nurse licensed in California who wants credentials to practice in Arizona must pay California $60 to confirm her background. Those sorts of checks netted California nearly $1 million in fiscal 2009.

Weber and Ornstein are senior reporters at ProPublica, a nonprofit investigative newsroom in New York. Their previous stories on nursing oversight are available at latimes.com/nurses and propublica.org/nurses.

tracy.weber@propublica.org

charles.ornstein@propublica.org

Yale Selects Notivus Technology and Services to Support New Product

2010-04-19T08:37:00.000-07:00

Yale Associates Announces Powerful New Vendor and Contractor Screening Service

New York, NY- April 19, 2010 - Yale Associates announced today the introduction of its new vendor, supplier and contractor screening service. The full service enterprise system registers, credentials and manages vendors, suppliers, contractors and their related employees. The system provides the ability to measure compliance, integrate background and drug testing services and dramatically improves efficiency through its paperless on boarding capabilities.

Large companies have considerable relationships with vendors and contractors especially in today's economy. The need to credential and manage these relationships is critical. Yale has listened to its customers and is responding to the demand for this type of system.

"Yale has many Fortune 100 clients that have been asking for a system to on board, manage and screen potential vendors and contractors. This solution provides a solid response to this demand while saving customers money, improving compliance analytics and providing visibility into customer business relationships with suppliers, vendors and contractors." stated, Joseph Taylor, Executive Vice President, Yale Associates.

Notivus' technology was selected as a critical element in the Yale solution. Notivus state of the art technology for on boarding, screening and managing vendors, suppliers and contractors has been integrated into the Yale solution. The system enables paperless on boarding, advanced analytics tools, immediate access to critical data elements and the ability to measure program performance across business lines.

According to David Cook, Notivus Chief Executive Officer "we are very excited to partner with Yale Associates as they recognize the benefits that our applications have in supporting their Fortune 100 clients. Further, we give Yale the ability to more cost-efficiently manage their technology assets."

About Yale Associates

For more than 20 years, Yale has provided fast, accurate information to Fortune 100 companies and other firms, enabling them to make better and more informed hiring decisions.We serve a broad spectrum of markets, particularly those with compliance requirements, such as the healthcare, pharmaceutical, financial, and transportation industries.The founders of Yale combined extensive experience with federal government and the information services industry to create a unique process that focuses on developing significant, job related information that goes above and beyond. visit www.yaleassociates.com

About Notivus

Notivus provides on-demand Enterprise Credentialing software solutions. Its product suite includes Notivus On-Boarding, Notivus Analytics and Notivus Gateway, which support medium and large enterprises in Vendor, Contractor and Employee management processes. Notivus solutions easily integrate with key customer operations for improved use of their critical Employee, Contractor and Vendor assets while providing transparency and visibility to important legal and compliance requirements. Notivus is managed by an executive team with over 100 years of combined experience in the design and delivery of employment screening and vendor compliance programs. For more information, visit www.notivus.com.

NOTIVUS ANNOUNCES STRATEGIC PARTNERSHIP

2010-03-08T11:59:00.000-08:00

--Implementing “Credential Cloud” technology with major Background and Verifications Company--

Atlanta, GA March 6, 2010 -- Notivus (Pronounced: Noteevus) today announced that it has entered into a strategic partnership to provide its innovative technology which will allow a leading provider of background and verification services to offer customers single point access to employment screening, substance abuse testing, vendor screening and business credentialing services.

Notivus’ cloud technology demonstrates its commitment to helping industry providers meet the growing needs of their clients. The credentialing cloud provides companies immediate access to critical data elements and the ability to measure program performance and compliance across business lines. The advanced system is the first of its kind and allows gateway access to data and services from multiple providers to be combined with advanced analytics and compliance tools.

By utilizing Notivus’ innovative technology, background screening providers can increase revenues and improve client retention by offering an expanded suite of credentialing services. Strategic partners of Notivus also benefit from a significant reduction of operating costs associated with the traditional development and maintenance of disparate interfaces.

According to Chad Redfern, Notivus Chief Marketing Officer, “a growing number of information service companies are recognizing the benefits of tapping Notivus to access new market applications, additional data sets and to more cost-effectively manage their technology assets.”

For more information please visit: www.notivus.com

States may ban credit checks on job applicants

2010-03-05T11:16:00.000-08:00

ANNAPOLIS, Md. (AP) — It's hard enough to find a job in this economy, and now some people are facing another hurdle: Potential employers are holding their credit histories against them.

Sixty percent of employers recently surveyed by the Society for Human Resources Management said they run credit checks on at least some job applicants, compared with 42% in a somewhat similar survey in 2006.

Employers say such checks give them valuable information about an applicant's honesty and sense of responsibility. But lawmakers in at least 16 states from South Carolina to Oregon have proposed outlawing most checks, saying the practice traps people in debt because their past financial problems prevent them from finding work.

Wisconsin state Rep. Kim Hixson drafted a bill in his state shortly after hearing from Terry Becker, an auto mechanic who struggled to find work.

Becker said it all started with medical bills that piled up when his now 10-year-old son began having seizures as a toddler. In the first year alone, Becker ran up $25,000 in medical debt.

Over 4½ months, he was turned down for at least eight positions for which he had authorized the employer to conduct a credit check, Becker said. He said one potential employer told him, "If your credit is bad, then you'll steal from me."

"I was in a deep depression. I had lost a business, I was behind on my bills and I was unable to get a job," he said.

Hixson calls what happened to Becker discrimination based on credit history and said his bill would ban it.

"If somebody is trying to get a job as a truck driver or a trainer in a gym, what does your credit history have to do with your ability to do that job?" Hixson said. He said he knows of no research that shows a person with a bad credit history is going to perform poorly.

Under federal law, prospective employers must get written permission from applicants to run a credit check on them. But consumer advocates say most job applicants do not feel they are in a position to say no.

Most of the bills being proposed this year resemble laws in Hawaii and Washington that prevent employers from using credit reports when hiring for most positions. The laws contain exceptions in cases where such information could be relevant to the job — for example, if the person is applying to work in a bank or an accounts-payable office.

On a national level, Rep. Steve Cohen, D-Tenn., introduced a similar bill last summer in Congress, where it is still bottled up in committee.

Even though more companies are using credit checks, only 13% perform them on all potential hires, according to the Society for Human Resources Management's most recent survey. Mike Aitken, the group's director of government affairs, said a blanket ban could remove a tool employers can use to help them make good hiring decisions.

Aitken pointed to a 2008 survey by the Association of Certified Fraud Examiners that found the two most common red flags for employees who commit workplace fraud are living beyond their means and having difficulty meeting financial obligations. The same survey estimated American companies lost $994 billion to workplace fraud in 2008.

Aitken said someone who cannot pay his or her bills on time may not be more likely to steal, but might not have the maturity or sense of responsibility to handle a job like processing payroll checks.

In Maryland, where the state Chamber of Commerce opposes a bill banning most credit checks, employers at a recent legislative hearing said they are not interested in applicants' credit scores.

Instead, they said, they are concerned about things like debt collections and legal judgments rather than poor credit because of medical bills or school loans. They also said companies give job applicants a chance to explain their credit problems.

Last year California lawmakers voted to curb the use of such checks, but Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger vetoed the bill under pressure from Chamber of Commerce leaders who called it a "job-killer."

But Maryland Delegate Kirill Reznik, who drafted the bill being considered in his state, said people struggling to get jobs need help.

"We are in the great recession and this creates a vicious cycle," Reznik said. "People lose their jobs, that naturally precipitates them getting behind on bills, their credit scores go down, they are trying to find a job to pay off the bills, and employers won't hire them because of their credit score."

Maryland public school employee Jen Harwood said running credit checks on job applicants "perpetuates the divide between the haves and the have-nots."

"If you continue digging into people's past and not looking into what people have to give today, you are making a bigger divide," Harwood said.

Consumer advocacy groups are also lining up behind the legislation, pointing out that credit reports can contain inaccurate information.

Becker, the Milton, Wis., resident with bad credit, has found work dismantling cars at an auto recycling company that did not ask to run a credit check. He worries, though, about friends in the auto industry are looking for work and coming up empty-handed because of credit problems.

"It just seems like once you fall behind, you're behind," he said. "It's really hard to get back on the right financial track."

Notivus announced today that it signed a 5-Year contract to provide IT Processing services for a major information service company.

2010-02-05T11:40:00.000-08:00

Notivus (Pronounced: Noteevus) announced today that it signed a contract to provide technology support for a leading information service provider.

The agreement covers Notivus handling all transactions, data aggregation, report generation, hosting and development for this provider. Notivus has become the back office IT provider allowing the customer to focus on customer service, product and sales in this tough economic environment.

"Outsourcing transaction processing and support to Notivus allows information service providers to reduce and control costs, access enhanced technology and spend work time focused on their customers. Notivus has a proven expertise in developing; supporting and managing its customers’ technology support services on a 24x7 basis. commented, Stephen Tinkle, Chief Information Officer, Notivus. "More and more information service companies are recognizing the value of plugging into Notivus to access new data sets, new market applications and to manage their critical technology assets."

About Notivus:
Notivus was built by a management team which has over 100 years of leadership experience in employment screening and vendor compliance. Notivus is committed to our customer's success and provides extensive services to help customers reach their goals. We have optimized screening and credentialing programs through technology. Professionals on our team are available to ensure your Notivus solution becomes an integral part of your business.

Notivus - Vendor Credentialing - Vendor Screening

2010-02-04T06:04:00.000-08:00

Notivus is a leading edge service company that resulted from the culmination of more than 100 years of combined industry experience in which our executive team continually heard from employers were looking for a better answer for the following critical needs:

• More Effective and Affordable Services: Ability to provide accurate, cost competitive and timely information so Customer can best safeguard two of their most vital assets: their people and their business reputation

• Improved User Experience: Flexible, state-of-the-art technology that easily allows Customer to integrate screening solutions into they way Customers do business, as opposed to changing a process to accommodate the vendor’s system.

• Automated Program Measurement: Visibility to a dynamic, real time dashboard to allow for easy program measurement and validation that the service is meeting if not exceeding all Customer expectations

• World Class Customer Service: A provider that performs as a “service partner” and not simply as a “vendor”. This means we put the highest priority on the Customer having a successful process and a positive Candidate experience, and don’t worry simply focus on how many reports a Customer can buy.

Notivus Adding Staff and Technology Infrastructure in Response to Customer Demand for Vendor Compliance Systems

2010-02-03T07:11:00.001-08:00

Notivus Adding Staff and Technology Infrastructure in Response to Customer Demand for Vendor Compliance Systems

Atlanta, Georgia (Business Wire) February, 2, 2010 -- Notivus, LLC, (http://www.notivus.com), harnesses the power of technology and data to assist companies to securely register, process and credential their vendors and employees to streamline on boarding, increase visibility to critical assets and ensure compliance.

Driven by increased risk and regulatory compliance customers are turning to Notivus for an enterprise system to automate vendor registration and verifying the qualifications of their vendors. Continuing to address this demand, Notivus is expanding its staff and technology footprint. Notivus, announced today that it has recently added staff in all areas of the company, including sales, client services and operations, many of whom bring prior vendor credentialing, employment screening or related industry experience.

“Our success can be attributed to the need for vendor credentialing and compliance and to the many new customers that adopted Notivus solutions," says David Cook, Notivus Chief Executive Officer. "More companies are recognizing the value of streamlining vendor management or they have a need to comply with new regulations. In response to customer need, Notivus is tripling its staff in order to accommodate this and future growth, we have expanded our footprint in a SAAS 70 data facility and we are almost doubling our office capacity within the next 120 days."

About Notivus:
Notivus was built by a management team which has over 100 years of leadership experience in employment screening and vendor compliance. Notivus is committed to our customer's success and provides extensive services to help customers reach their goals. We have optimized screening and credentialing programs through technology. Professionals on our team are available to ensure your Notivus solution becomes an integral part of your business.

Atlanta's Notivus Matches Donations To Victims of Haiti's Earthquake

2010-01-14T10:57:00.000-08:00

The Notivus family sends its thoughts and prayers to the victims of Haiti's Earthquake. In response to the destruction from Haiti's Earthquake, the Notivus team members are donating funds and clothing toward relief efforts in the affected areas. Notivus is matching all funds donated by its employees. The funds will donated to The American Red Cross and other relief organizations that assist with long-term rebuilding activities.

Notivus urges other individuals and organizations to review donation guidelines provided by the American Red Cross before conducting any drives.

Donate Now To The American Red Cross

About Notivus:
Notivus was built by a management team which has over 100 years of leadership experience in employment screening and vendor compliance. Notivus is committed to our customer's success and provides extensive services to help customers reach their goals. We have optimized screening and credentialing programs through technology. Professionals on our team are available to ensure your Notivus solution becomes an integral part of your business.

Network Operations Center

2010-01-03T11:20:00.000-08:00