Senate Bill 1594

<b>Digest: The Act creates the Task Force on Improving the Safety of Behavioral Health Workers. The Act says who must be on the task force and the duties of the task force.</b> <b>The Act creates a program in which OHA pays persons who run places that provide mental health care or substance use care so that the persons can provide their workers with on-the-job training or other types of training. (Flesch Readability Score: 69.4).</b> [<i>Digest: The Act requires each person who runs a place that provides mental health care and substance use care to have a safety plan to protect the person's workers. The Act sets out how a safety plan must be created and requires a person to submit the safety plan to OHA by a certain date. The Act puts civil penalties on persons who do not have safety plans, who do not submit the plans to OHA by the due date or who fail to comply with the safety plans.</i>] [<i>The Act creates a program in which OHA pays persons who run places that provide mental health care or substance use care so that the persons can provide their workers with on-the-job training or other types of training. (Flesch Readability Score: 61.4).</i>] [<i>Requires a behavioral health care facility to have in place a safety plan to ensure the safety of the employees of the facility. Specifies procedures for creating the safety plan that include involving the exclusive representative of any employees who are in a collective bargaining unit. Requires behavioral health facilities to submit safety plans to the Oregon Health Authority by September 1, 2025, and every two years thereafter.</i>] [<i>Requires the authority to establish a process for individuals to file a complaint regarding a violation of a safety plan and allows the authority to audit a facility for compliance with a facility's safety plan.</i>] [<i>Authorizes the authority to impose specified civil penalties.</i>] <b>Establishes the Task Force on Improving the Safety of Behavioral Health Workers. Specifies the membership and duties of the task force. Requires the task force to provide a preliminary report on its recommendations for improving worker safety by September 1, 2024, and a final report by December 1, 2024, to the interim committees of the Legislative Assembly related to health.</b> Establishes the United We Heal Medicaid Payment Program in the <b>Oregon Health</b> Authority to make payments to behavioral health facilities to offer apprenticeship and training opportunities to their employee behavioral health providers. <b>Appropriates moneys to the authority to distribute to the United We Heal Training Trust to provide grants to employers of behavioral health workers to make safety improvements. <b>Declares an emergency, effective on passage.</b>

In the Senate

• Chris Gorsek

  Sponsor

In the House of Representatives

• Ricki Ruiz

  Sponsor

• Annessa Hartman

  Chief co-sponsor

• Senate committee amendmentAdopted

  Adopted Feb 19

l9n doesn't hold this bill's text yet.

In the Senate Feb 5 – Mar 7

1. Feb 5Introduced
2. Sent to Health Care
3. Feb 14Heard in Health Care
4. Feb 19Health Care recommended it as amended, and that it go to Ways and Means
5. Sent to Ways and Means
6. Mar 7Died when the session ended