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CVS Health
VerifiedYes. CVS Health hires people with criminal records.
This employer states that a criminal record does not rule you out on its own. What we confirmed, and what we could not, is set out below.
National pharmacy chain and health-services company operating about 9,000 retail locations plus distribution and call-center operations.
What we confirmed
Each line is one thing we checked, what it means for your application, and the document it came from.
Public commitment 2 Signed up to Fair Chance Business Pledge and Second Chance Business Coalition. A pledge is a public statement, not a guarantee about any single application. Second Chance Business Coalition member list · read September 3, 2026
How to apply
Apply through the CVS Health careers site for retail, distribution, or patient-support roles.
Which roles are closed to you
A company willing to hire you can still be forbidden by law to put you in a particular job. None of these are CVS Health's decision, and none of them are a reason not to apply for the work that is open.
Checking a Pennsylvania license before you pay for training Open In Pennsylvania you can ask a licensing board in advance whether your record would block a license, before you spend anything on a training program.
Eldercare work in Pennsylvania with an old conviction Open Pennsylvania's lifetime ban on eldercare work for people with certain convictions was struck down in 2015 and cannot be enforced, so your record there is weighed case by case.
Retail sales associate or cashier Open No law closes general retail work to you, and an employer that rejects everyone with a record is the one taking a legal risk.
Any job at a provider that bills Medicare or Medicaid Restricted If you are on the federal exclusion list, Medicare and Medicaid will not pay for anything you do for a provider, which is why hospitals and nursing homes screen every role and not just the clinical ones. Exclusion is mandatory, and at least five years, for four kinds of conviction: a crime related to delivering care under Medicare or a state health program, any conviction for patient abuse or neglect including a misdemeanor, a felony conviction for health care fraud, theft, embezzlement, or breach of fiduciary duty, and a felony conviction for making, distributing, prescribing, or dispensing a controlled substance. A second qualifying conviction raises the minimum to ten years and a third makes it permanent. Other convictions, such as a misdemeanor drug offense or fraud against a government program that is not health care, are permissive, which means the Inspector General may exclude you, usually for three years, but is not required to. Exclusion is a payment rule rather than a hiring ban, so an employer that does not bill a federal health program can still hire you. 42 U.S.C. 1320a-7 · checked September 17, 2026
Non-clinical healthcare work while excluded (billing, IT, kitchen, HR) Exclusion is not limited to hands-on patient care, and the government says it reaches administrative, kitchen, IT, and management work at a provider that bills federal health programs. The Inspector General has said in writing that the payment ban covers services well beyond direct care, naming executive and leadership roles, human resources, billing and accounting, strategic planning, staff training, health information technology, and support work like preparing surgical trays, whether or not the work is separately billed. It applies the same way to employees, contractors, volunteers, and staffing agency placements, and it follows you if you change professions while excluded. The one opening the agency itself recognizes is work a federal health program does not pay for directly or indirectly, which is why cash-pay and non-billing employers are a real option. OIG Special Advisory Bulletin (May 8, 2013) · checked September 17, 2026
Nurse aide, CNA, or any job in a nursing home A nursing home may not employ you in any role if a state registry carries a finding of abuse, neglect, exploitation, mistreatment, or theft from a resident against your name. This is separate from a criminal record and separate from the federal exclusion list. A state survey agency enters the finding after its own investigation and a hearing, with no arrest, charge, or conviction required, and findings of abuse and misappropriation stay on the registry permanently. Only a neglect finding can be petitioned off, and no sooner than one year after it was entered. The same rule separately bars anyone a court has found guilty of those acts and anyone with matching license discipline in effect, and it reaches every individual the facility employs, not only aides. 42 CFR 483.12(a)(3) · checked September 17, 2026
Pharmacy or clinic job with access to controlled substances A DEA-registered pharmacy or practice may not employ you in any position with access to controlled substances if you have a felony conviction relating to controlled substances. The rule is written as a flat prohibition on the employer, with no lookback and no time limit, and it reaches any agent or employee who has access rather than only the licensed pharmacist. It applies the same way if your own DEA registration was denied or revoked, or if you surrendered one for cause, meaning in the face of an investigation into how you handled controlled substances. Pharmacy and clinic work that does not involve access to the controlled substance stock, and health care employers that are not DEA registrants, sit outside this rule. 21 CFR 1301.76(a) · checked September 17, 2026
Pharmacy technician Restricted Pharmacy technicians are registered or licensed state by state, and in Pennsylvania a conviction is weighed against the actual job instead of triggering an automatic no. Pennsylvania started registering pharmacy technicians on June 28, 2025 and required registration to keep working as one by June 28, 2026. State law there bars licensing boards from denying anyone for good moral character or moral turpitude and makes them run a two-stage test instead: whether your offense is on the board's published list of directly related offenses, and if it is, whether you rebut a presumption of risk with evidence of rehabilitation. The old blanket felony drug bar in the practice acts now reaches only drug trafficking offenses defined by weight, such as at least 50 pounds of marijuana or at least 100 grams of a Schedule I or II narcotic, so a smaller drug felony no longer triggers it. A crime of violence can still be licensed three years after release with evidence of rehabilitation, while a sexual offense conviction is a permanent bar for health care practitioners. Other states set their own rules and several are far stricter, so read yours. 63 Pa.C.S. § 3113 (Pennsylvania) · checked September 17, 2026
Child care worker at a licensed or subsidized program Nine felony categories close child care work at a licensed or subsidized program for good, and a felony drug conviction is the only one that stops counting after five years. This is a condition every state has to meet to keep its federal child care funding, and it reaches staff at any provider the state licenses, regulates, or registers, or that accepts child care subsidy. The permanent felony list is murder, child abuse or neglect, a crime against children including child pornography, spousal abuse, rape or sexual assault, kidnapping, arson, and physical assault or battery, and a violent misdemeanor committed as an adult against a child or any misdemeanor involving child pornography also disqualifies you, as does being on a sex offender registry or refusing or lying on the check. A felony drug offense is the only item with a time limit, five years, and the only one a state is allowed to review and clear. States may add offenses of their own and most do, and care that is neither licensed nor subsidized sits outside this federal floor. 45 CFR 98.43(c) · checked September 17, 2026
Home care aide, personal care home, or assisted living worker Restricted There is no national list of convictions that closes eldercare work, because the federal program paying for these background checks lets each state write its own list. The National Background Check Program is a grant that states opt into, and the statute says a participating state specifies the disqualifying offenses itself. It does require any participating state to run an independent appeal that weighs how much time has passed, extenuating circumstances, evidence of rehabilitation, and how relevant the record is to the job, and it allows provisional employment for up to 60 days under direct on-site supervision. Two federal bars still sit on top of the state list: exclusion from Medicare and Medicaid, and the nursing home rule on abuse findings. 42 U.S.C. 1320a-7l · checked September 17, 2026
Any job that puts a firearm or ammunition in your hands If you have a conviction for a crime punishable by more than a year in prison, federal law makes it a crime for you to possess or receive a firearm or ammunition, and that quietly closes more jobs than people expect. This is a bar on possession rather than on any named occupation, but it reaches every duty that puts a gun or a box of ammunition in your hands: a sporting goods counter, a warehouse aisle that stocks ammunition, armed security, parts of some manufacturing lines. Federal law separately makes it a crime for anyone to sell or hand over a firearm or ammunition to a person they know or have reason to believe is prohibited, which is why licensed dealers are careful about which roles they fill. The definition leaves out business regulation offenses such as antitrust, and leaves out state misdemeanors punishable by two years or less. An expungement, a set aside, a pardon, or a restoration of civil rights takes the conviction back out unless the order itself says your firearm rights are not restored. 18 U.S.C. 922(g)(1) · checked September 17, 2026
Armed security guard Restricted Armed security is licensed state by state, and the federal firearms bar applies on top of whatever your state decides. Pennsylvania is one worked example: a conviction for any of twelve named crimes of violence, including murder, rape, aggravated assault, robbery, burglary, kidnapping, arson, recklessly endangering another person, and terroristic threats, categorically blocks certification, while any other conviction only may block it and the decision can be appealed. The state card does not give you any right to carry a firearm that state or federal law otherwise denies you, so the federal bar operates independently. California runs it the other way, as a discretionary fitness review, and state law there generally limits denials to convictions substantially related to the work and within seven years, with no denial permitted on a dismissed conviction, a pardon, a certificate of rehabilitation, or an arrest that led to no conviction. Your own state will differ, so read its rule rather than either of these. Pa. Lethal Weapons Training Act, Act 235 of 1974 · checked September 17, 2026
Unarmed guard at a contract security company Restricted Pennsylvania has no statewide license for unarmed guards, but a licensed guard company there may not knowingly employ anyone with a felony in any capacity, and only an executive pardon lifts that. This is a rule aimed at the employer rather than a license you apply for, and it covers a felony plus a list of other offenses including weapons offenses, receiving stolen property, unlawful entry of a building, narcotics distribution, recklessly endangering another person, terroristic threats, and simple assault. The company faces a fine and can lose its license over it, which is why contract guard firms screen hard even for posts with no weapon. The same act exempts security staff employed directly and exclusively by the business being protected, so in-house security is a separate and more open lane than a guard agency. Other states handle unarmed guards differently, several of them through a license you apply for yourself, so treat this as one example rather than a national rule. Private Detective Act of 1953 (Pa.), Act 361, § 13(a) · checked September 17, 2026
Where they hire
These are the places we can name. We are building a real location list so this can answer "near me" properly.
Woonsocket, Rhode Island Location A site we can name for this employer.
Your rights in Rhode Island
A Rhode Island employer with four or more workers cannot ask about your record on the application, but they can ask at the first interview.
When they may ask At the first interview The application form cannot ask whether you have ever been arrested, charged or convicted. Law enforcement jobs are carved out, and the employer can ask on the application about specific offenses if the law disqualifies you from that job or from a required fidelity bond. Once the first interview happens, Rhode Island puts no limit on how they weigh what you tell them.Rhode Island Fair Employment Practices Act, R.I. Gen. Laws § 28-5-7(7) · checked September 17, 2026
How this entry can change
If you have applied here and what happened does not match what this page says, tell us and we will check it again. Corrections go to our reviewers, not to the employer, and we publish what changes. Report a problem.
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