(a) Establishing qualifications for home care workers and personal support workers, with the advice and consent of the Department of Human Services, to ensure the effective delivery of home care services by a qualified, committed, experienced and well-trained workforce;

(b) Conducting orientation sessions for home care workers and personal support workers;

(c) Ensuring training opportunities for home care workers and personal support workers in accordance with ORS 410.598;

(d) Providing training opportunities to elderly persons and persons with disabilities who employ home care workers or personal support workers;

(e) Establishing the home care registry and maintaining the registry with qualified home care workers and personal support workers;

(f) Providing routine, emergency and respite referrals of home care workers and personal support workers;

(g) Entering into contracts with public and private organizations and individuals for the purpose of obtaining or developing training materials and curriculum or other services as may be needed by the commission;

(h) Establishing occupational health and safety standards for home care workers and personal support workers, in accordance with ORS 654.003 (3), and informing home care workers and personal support workers of the standards; and

(i) Working on its own, if resources are available, or cooperatively with area agencies and state and local agencies to accomplish the duties listed in paragraphs (a) to (h) of this subsection.

(2)(a) The commission shall enter into an interagency agreement with the department to contract for a department employee to serve as executive director of the commission. The executive director shall be appointed by the Director of Human Services in consultation with the Governor and subject to approval by the commission, and shall serve at the pleasure of the Director of Human Services. The commission may delegate to the executive director the authority to act on behalf of the commission to carry out its duties and responsibilities, including but not limited to:

(A) Entering into contracts or agreements; and

(B) Taking reasonable or necessary actions related to the commission’s role as employer of record for home care workers and personal support workers under ORS 410.612.

(b) The commission shall enter into an interagency agreement with the department for carrying out any of the duties or functions of the commission, for department expenditures and for the provision of staff support by the department.

(3) When conducting its activities, and in making decisions relating to those activities, the commission shall first consider the effect of its activities and decisions on:

(a) Improving the quality of service delivered by home care workers and personal support workers;

(b) Ensuring adequate hours of service are provided to elderly persons and persons with disabilities by home care workers and personal support workers; and

(c) Ensuring that services, activities and purchases that are purchased by elderly persons and persons with disabilities other than home care services, including adult support services, are not compromised or diminished.

(4) The commission shall work with culturally diverse community-based organizations to train and certify community health workers and personal health navigators. The workers and navigators shall work as part of a multidisciplinary team under the direction of a licensed or certified health care professional. The commission shall recruit qualified home care workers and personal support workers who desire to be trained and certified as community health workers or personal health navigators.

(5) The commission shall ensure that each coordinated care organization honors all of the terms and conditions of employment established by the commission with respect to the community health workers and personal health navigators referred by the commission. This subsection does not require a coordinated care organization to employ or contract with community health workers and personal health navigators certified by the commission so long as the community health workers and personal health navigators employed or otherwise retained by the organization meet competency standards established by the authority under ORS 414.665.

(6) The commission has the authority to contract for services, lease, acquire, hold, own, encumber, insure, sell, replace, deal in and with and dispose of real and personal property in its own name.

(7) As used in this section, "community health worker," "coordinated care organization" and "personal health navigator" have the meanings given those terms in ORS 414.025. [2001 c.901 §3; 2007 c.70 §180; 2007 c.797 §4; 2010 c.100 §8; 2011 c.602 §23; 2014 c.116 §6; 2015 c.796 §§6,7; 2018 c.75 §6]