Hiring of Health-Care ‘Navigators’ With Criminal Records Draws Fire From Calif. Lawmakers

Republican legislators in California are seeking answers from the state’s health-insurance exchange on the hiring of 31 people with criminal records to work as counselors helping residents secure coverage under the Affordable Care Act, reports the Los Angeles Times.

In a letter Wednesday, two GOP Assembly members requested that Covered California explain at a hearing why people with felony, burglary, and welfare-fraud convictions were permitted to work with clinics and nonprofit groups as enrollment counselors.

The health-care “navigators,” as they are known, can have access to sensitive information about insurance-seekers, such as Social Security numbers, which has led many Republican-led states to adopt tougher hiring restrictions for the counselors.

California has certified more than 3,700 counselors. Covered California said that for those with records it considered the age and nature of the offenses, many of which date to the 1980s and ‘90s, and how old the job applicants were when they were committed. Those approved “demonstrated that they have rehabilitated themselves,” said Larry Hicks, a spokesman for the exchange.