Oregon Members: Feedback Needed on HB 3838 by Friday

3/12/2025

Two identical bills, HB 3838 and SB 1138, have been filed in the Oregon legislature that would establish a Home and Community-Based Workforce Standards Board. The legislation would direct the board to set minimum working standards for the HCBS workforce. It would also grant the board the authority to establish uniform training standards and provide “remedies” for allegations and violations of the minimum standards established by the board.

HCAOA is concerned about this bill's overreach and its impact on Oregon HCBS providers. HCAOA is preparing testimony to present to the House Committee on Business and Labor on Monday, March 17.

ACT NOW!
Review the proposed legislation and detail specific portions of the legislation you believe are most significant to address. Provide your feedback to [email protected] by Friday, March 14.

HCAOA will share a copy of its testimony with members and also encourage individual members to submit their own testimony.

Contact Eric Reinarman ([email protected]) or Cai Yoke ([email protected]) if you have questions.

2 Comments

LaJean Humphries

3/14/2025 06:23:21 pm

HB 3838 is over-reach. SEIU is forcing its way into home and community-based care facilities, where it has little presence, to take control of wages, benefits, working conditions, and staffing. This bill circumvents negotiations and collective bargaining while driving up costs for consumers, living on fixed incomes.

HB 3838 is bad policy that will destabilizean already fragile sector, taking away a community’s ability to make employee-related decisions based on resident needs, workforce realities, and financial constraints. Instead of strengthening the workforce, this bill will worsen staffing challenges by adding unnecessary bureaucracy, increasing costs, and diverting focus away from providing care for older adults.

This bill imposes more regulations and gives sweeping authority to an unbalanced board, limiting providers' ability to operate, raising costs for seniors, and putting facilities at risk of closure. It forces all provider organizations, even those serving private-pay clients, to comply with state-imposed mandates. Since the outbreak of Covid, costs have skyrocketed at CCRCs like the one where I reside. Residents cannot continue to pay these increasingly high costs.

I do not believe HB 3838 is about helping caregivers or residents; it’s about expanding SEIU’s power at the expense of Oregon’s seniors, people with disabilities, and their families. Thank you.

Vlad Enakiev

3/17/2025 01:41:37 pm

Opposition to House Bill 3838: Overreach and Unintended Consequences in the Home and Community-Based Services Sector

House Bill 3838, which seeks to establish a Home and Community-Based Services Workforce Standards Board, raises several concerns regarding government overreach, increased financial burdens, and unintended consequences for both care providers and the individuals they serve. While ensuring fair wages and working conditions is important, this bill imposes rigid regulations that could harm small care providers, reduce workforce flexibility, and increase costs that may ultimately be passed on to vulnerable residents.

Increased Costs and Funding Uncertainty
The bill mandates compensation and benefit standards that could significantly raise operating costs for small adult foster homes, in-home care agencies, and other community-based providers. However, it does not establish a clear funding source to cover these new costs. The requirement that new standards impacting state budgets must be ratified by the Legislative Assembly creates uncertainty, as providers may be left without adequate reimbursement, forcing them to cut services or close their doors.

Bureaucratic Overreach and Loss of Provider Autonomy
HB 3838 places significant decision-making power in the hands of a 13-member appointed board, rather than allowing individual providers to set employment terms that best suit their operational needs. Employers—many of whom are small business owners—could lose autonomy in managing wages, training, and staffing levels, leading to increased administrative burdens and reduced flexibility in responding to workforce challenges.

Risk of Workforce Shortages
Instead of making home and community-based care more attractive, the bill could exacerbate worker shortages by imposing additional training, certification, and reporting requirements. Smaller providers may struggle to comply with new mandates, leading to fewer available jobs or a shift toward institutionalized care, which contradicts the bill’s goal of strengthening community-based services.

Privacy Concerns and Worker Representation Issues
The bill requires employers to share worker information—including names, addresses, and contact details—with labor organizations. This raises serious privacy concerns for employees who may not wish to have their personal information shared or be automatically involved in collective bargaining efforts without their consent.

One-Size-Fits-All Approach Ignores Regional Differences
HB 3838 seeks to standardize wages and benefits across Oregon, failing to consider cost-of-living variations between rural and urban areas. A wage mandate that might be sustainable in Portland could be devastating for a small care home in a rural community, potentially leading to reduced services or facility closures.

Conclusion: A Need for Balance
Rather than creating a state-controlled board with sweeping authority over private care providers, Oregon should focus on incentive-based solutions to improve wages and working conditions, such as increased Medicaid reimbursement rates, tax credits for caregivers, or voluntary workforce development programs. HB 3838, as written, risks creating more harm than good, reducing care options, increasing costs, and making it harder for small providers to remain in operation.

Lawmakers should reject this bill in favor of a more balanced approach that considers the realities of home and community-based care.

Oregon Members: Feedback Needed on HB 3838 by Friday

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