As of June 4, the Pennsylvania Department of Aging will no longer accept manually submitted background checks and instead will require that all job applicants for long-term care facilities or home health care agencies use electronic fingerprinting.

"In addition to enhancing the protections provided to our older adults, electronic fingerprinting will help us to more quickly process background checks," says Secretary of Aging Brian Duke. "This is important because it will help people obtain jobs in Pennsylvania's valuable health care industry."

Under the Older Adults Protective Services Act, applicants as well as employees of LTC facilities, home health care agencies and other agencies must submit their criminal history to a background check, and they must obtain criminal history record reports through the Pennsylvania State Police. For applicants who have not been a Pennsylvania resident for a minimum of two years, they are required to pull criminal history record reports from both PSP and the FBI.