OAR 411-450-0090: Standard Model Agency Requirements

(1) For a provider agency to be endorsed to deliver community living supports as a standard model agency, the provider agency must meet the additional requirements in this rule. The requirements of this rule do not apply to a provider agency endorsed as a community living supports agency. (2) A standard model agency must develop and implement policies and procedures that minimize the loss of agency employee income when an individual cancels a scheduled support. (3) A standard model agency may not, by written or unwritten policy, engage in practices that result in a pattern of discrimination against individuals or groups of individuals based on the types of support they require. Types of support that cannot be the basis for systematic refusal to provide services to an individual include, but are not limited to, the need for the following supports: (a) Behavior supports. (b) Health-related tasks. (c) Any activity of daily living. (d) Supports associated with a specific disability. (e) Medication management or administration. (4) Prior to exiting an individual involuntarily under OAR 411-450-0040(4)(a)(C) due to the loss of a direct support professional, a standard model agency must demonstrate efforts to hire or assign an alternative direct support professional before the exit takes place unless the agency maintains documentation that the individual declined another direct support professional from the agency. (5) A standard model agency must support a direct support professional’s access to paid training and certification in ODDS-approved behavior intervention curriculum for employees assigned to support a person with a Professional Behavior Support Plan (PBSP) or Temporary Emergency Safety Plan (TESP) that includes a safeguarding intervention. (6) While a standard model agency employee is delivering a scheduled support, the agency employee must have timely access to a program supervisor. (a) For the purpose of this rule, a program supervisor is an employee of the agency who is designated by the Executive Director, or their designee, to supervise employees providing direct care. (b) Beginning January 1, 2026, an agency’s program supervisor may supervise no more than an average of 20 full-time equivalent direct support professionals at any given time. (7) INTEGRATED SUPPORT COORDINATION. When an ISP or Service Agreement identifies activities that are necessary for an individual to live in the community but are not directly related to the completion of an ADL, IADL, or health-related task, a standard model agency must assist in the completion of that activity when identified as the entity to do so in the ISP or Service Agreement. These activities may include, but are not limited to: (a) Scheduling medical appointments and medical transportation. (b) Assuring medications and treatments are ordered and reordered as needed. (c) Assisting with additional documentation necessary to: (A) Demonstrate progress towards desired outcomes. (B) Record data related to challenging behaviors. (C) Record data for review by a medical professional. (d) Evaluating and implementing strategies to mitigate risks in the individual’s environment, including safe storage practices of medication and harmful chemicals. (e) Maintaining a schedule of activities for the individual when needed to make progress toward a desired outcome. (f) Facilitating communication among agency employees who support the individual. (g) Facilitating communication with, reporting to, and training by behavior professionals and medical professionals including long-term care community nurses. (8) When directed by an individual's ISP or Service Agreement, a standard model agency must develop or acquire, maintain, and follow written protocols, specific to the individual, designed to mitigate known risks identified in the individual's ISP or Service Agreement. (a) The standard model agency must provide training on the protocols to each agency employee who supports the individual. (b) The protocols must be available to an agency employee when the agency employee is supporting the individual. (9) A standard model agency must allow an agency employee who is familiar with an individual’s support needs and preferences to participate in meetings related to the development of the individual's ISP when the individual requests the employee's participation and the employee is available. (10) IMPLEMENTATION STRATEGY. Beginning January 1, 2023, when an individual has a new annual ISP or when an individual begins receiving services from a standard model agency: (a) The standard model agency must develop, and update as needed, an individualized implementation strategy and provide the individual's implementation strategy to the individual’s case manager no later than: (A) Sixty calendar days from the start of the individual's ISP; or (B) If later than the start of the individual's ISP, sixty calendar days from agreeing to deliver hourly attendant care supports as shown by the dated signature of an agency representative on the individual's ISP or Service Agreement. (b) The standard model agency must provide each agency employee who supports the individual with an orientation to the individual's implementation strategy. (c) An implementation strategy must be added to the individual's service record described in OAR 411-450-0080(17). (11) Beginning January 1, 2023, when an individual has a new annual ISP or when an individual begins receiving services from a standard model agency, the agency must submit a quarterly, written progress report to each individual’s case management entity. (12) A standard model agency may not allow a new employee to support an individual until the employee has had a face to face meeting with a program supervisor from the agency. (13) Employees of a standard model agency who deliver hourly attendant care or skills training supports must have 12 hours per year of training related to the delivery of attendant care or skills training supports in addition to the requirements in OAR 411-323-0050(8). At least two hours per year must be on subjects related to diversity, equity, and inclusion. (14) A standard model agency may not require an individual or the individual's family to coordinate the schedules of the agency’s employees who support the individual.