Certiphi Screening Background Check Errors

If a Certiphi Screening background check is standing between you and a job, an inaccurate report is not something you have to accept. Certiphi Screening is a consumer reporting agency under the federal Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA), so you can see what it reports and force it to correct mistakes. You can learn more on our Employment Background Checks page.

What is Certiphi Screening?

Certiphi Screening is an employment background-screening company and part of Vertical Screen, based in Fort Washington, Pennsylvania. It is widely used for healthcare and professional screening and reports criminal, license, and employment information as a consumer reporting agency under the FCRA.

How to contact Certiphi Screening

You can request your report and file a dispute directly:

• Company: Certiphi Screening (Vertical Screen), Fort Washington, PA
• Website: certiphi.com (Request/Dispute My Report)
• Request: ask for a copy of your report and dispute errors through Certiphi

Confirm the current dispute address on your report before mailing anything, and keep copies of what you send.

Common Certiphi Screening errors we see

• A criminal record matched to you because you share a name or date of birth
• Expunged, sealed, or dismissed cases still showing as open or as convictions
• The same case reported more than once
• A charge reported as a conviction, or a misdemeanor reported as a felony
• Records reported beyond the FCRA's limits (generally seven years for certain older items)
• Incorrect personal information — wrong name, address, or Social Security number

How a Certiphi Screening error hurts you

Healthcare and professional offers are often conditioned on a clean screen, so one inaccurate Certiphi entry can cost you a job or clinical placement. The FCRA lets you dispute it first.

Certiphi Screening's track record with regulators

Certiphi has a documented FCRA litigation history.

Certiphi Screening has been named in a Fair Credit Reporting Act class action over an inaccurate background report, and it appears on the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau's public list of consumer reporting companies. Sources: Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and public court records. If your Certiphi report is inaccurate, that supports demanding a correction.

Your rights under the Fair Credit Reporting Act

Certiphi Screening must follow the FCRA. It must use reasonable procedures to assure maximum possible accuracy (§1681e(b)); it must reinvestigate disputes (§1681i); public-record information reported for employment must be current and complete (§1681k); and before an employer rejects you, it must give you the report and a summary of rights (§1681b(b)(3) pre-adverse-action).

How to dispute a Certiphi Screening background check

1. Ask the employer for the copy of the report and summary of rights they must provide.
2. Identify every inaccuracy and gather proof — court dispositions, expungement orders, ID.
3. Dispute in writing to Certiphi Screening, enclosing copies and keeping a dated record.
4. Ask the employer to hold the decision while the dispute is investigated.
5. If it is not corrected, or the report already cost you the job, contact an FCRA attorney.

This information is general and is not legal advice for your specific situation.

Did an inaccurate Certiphi Screening background check cost you a job?

Employment background reports are consumer reports under the FCRA, and Certiphi Screening has to follow strict accuracy rules. When a report is wrong and it costs you a job, you may be entitled to money damages — and our review is free.

How The Kim Law Firm helps

We are consumer-protection lawyers who handle FCRA cases nationwide. We help people whose Certiphi Screening report is inaccurate — wrong person, expunged records, outdated or duplicated cases. We do not help people trying to hide accurate records. If your report is wrong, we pursue the correction and any damages, and you do not pay unless we win.

Admitted in Pennsylvania and New Jersey; available to appear pro hac vice in other federal courts.

Credentialing, licenses and sanctions lists

Healthcare and professional screening asks questions that ordinary employment checks do not: is the license current, is the practitioner excluded from federal health programs, does a name appear on a state or federal sanctions list. Certiphi Screening, part of Vertical Screen and based in Fort Washington, Pennsylvania, is widely used for exactly this work. The lists it draws on are name-matched and updated on their own schedules, so a lapsed registration that was later reinstated, or an exclusion belonging to a similarly named practitioner, can surface long after the underlying issue was resolved.

• Cisive — a New York screener whose PreCheck brand covers the same healthcare market.
• ClearStar — a Georgia company combining criminal, medical and drug screening for employers.
• DISA Global Solutions — a Houston company handling testing and compliance for regulated roles.
• Global HR Research — a Florida screener supplying criminal, employment and drug screening.
• Accurate Background — a national screener whose reports are read the same way by credentialing staff.

If a credentialing report cost you a position, ask for the specific source behind each entry: the licensing board record, the list name, the date the list was pulled. A sanction attributed to you on a name match alone, or a status the licensing board itself shows differently, is an inaccuracy the agency must reinvestigate. Correcting the board record and disputing the report are separate steps, and the second does not happen automatically when the first does.

Screened by a different company? We also handle HireRight background check errors, Sterling background check errors, Checkr background check errors, and First Advantage background check errors — and you can start with our overview of the major background check companies.

Frequently asked questions

How do I dispute a Certiphi Screening background check?

Get the report from the employer or Certiphi, identify the errors, and dispute them in writing with documents. If it is not fixed, an FCRA attorney can help.

Certiphi is holding up my healthcare job — what can I do?

Request the report, dispute any inaccuracy in writing, and ask the employer to hold the decision. If it is not corrected, contact an FCRA attorney.

How long does a Certiphi background check take?

Certiphi does not publish a turnaround time. A Certiphi file often bundles a criminal search with employment and education verification and drug testing results, and when one of those pieces is waiting on a third party the whole report sits.

My Certiphi check has been sitting for weeks. Does that matter?

It can. The FCRA sets no deadline for finishing a pre-hire report, so the delay by itself is not a violation. What matters is what the employer or school did while you waited: if it already decided against you based on the report, it was supposed to give you a copy and a summary of your rights first, and a real chance to respond.

How do I get a copy of my Certiphi report?

Certiphi runs a Consumer Care department for exactly this — the portal at consumercare.certiphi.com, or 1-800-260-1680, or Certiphi Screening, Inc., Consumer Care Department, PO Box 541, Southampton, PA 18966. Certiphi states the request is handled at no charge and that it will reinvestigate disputed information under the FCRA. Have your full name, date of birth, address and Social Security number ready, because Certiphi asks for them to match you to the right file.

Can I sue Certiphi for a background check error?

Possibly. If Certiphi reported inaccurate information or ignored the FCRA's adverse-action rules and you were harmed, you may have a claim.

Is the case review really free?

Yes. There is no charge, and you pay nothing unless we win.

Where we practice, and what to do if you are somewhere else

The Kim Law Firm is licensed in Pennsylvania and New Jersey, and that is where we handle matters directly.

The Fair Credit Reporting Act is a federal statute. It applies the same way in every state, it is enforced in federal court, and the deadlines and remedies do not change when you cross a state line. So the answer to "does this apply to me in Ohio" is yes — but the answer to "can you represent me in Ohio" depends on the case and on where it would be filed.

If you are outside Pennsylvania and New Jersey, contact us anyway. Some matters can be handled from here. Some are better sent to a consumer lawyer admitted where you are, and we will tell you that plainly rather than let a deadline run while you wait. Either way you will get an answer, and the review costs nothing.

The one thing that does not wait is the clock. A claim under the Act generally must be brought within two years of the date you discover the violation, and in no event more than five years after the violation occurred. Finding out late does not extend the outside limit.