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OHLA Boards Get Busy:  Committee Meetings Rise from Only Two in 2009 to 47 in 2010, 44 in 2011, 25 So Far in 2012

The Oregon Health Licensing Agency's volunteer citizen boards greatly increased the number of
committee meetings conducted in the past two years, due mainly to work on updating and revising Oregon Administrative Rules (OARs).

Efforts to update administrative rules ranged from standards specific to individual professions -- such as health and safety standards for the state's licensed midwives -- to standardizing rules that apply to all regulated professions -- such as identification requirements for applicants -- to align with OHLA's overaching licensing and regulatory standards.

OHLA boards also made substantial rule revisions and established entire new rule sections due to:

• The addition of new boards (Nursing Home Administrators Board, Board of Licensed Dietitians).
  
  
• The addition of new professions to existing boards (sleep technicians joining the Respiratory Therapist Licensing Board to become the Respiratory Therapist and Polysomnographic Technologist Licensing Board).
  
  
• The creation of new boards from existing boards (the Board of Body Art Practitioners, previously the Advisory Council for Electrologists, Permanent Color Technicians and Tattoo Artists and the Body Piercing Licensing Program).

"We have made a concerted effort to address what was a backlog of administrative rule work that needed to be completed," says OHLA Director Randy Everitt.  "We applaud the level of engagement that our board members and agency staff haved shown to accomplish a great deal in a short period of time."

The pace of committee work has continued in the first half of 2012, with 25 different committee meetings held by boards overseen by OHLA. 

Multiple Professions, Multiple Administrative Rule Changes:  Highlights of Recent Rulemaking

Board of Athletic Trainers:  Training requirements, qualification requirements, examination protocols, supervisor
requirements, pathways to licensure, renewal requirements, continuing education requirements

Board of Body Art Practitioners:  Specialty level one and two body piercing

Board of Cosmetology:  Facility standards, practice standards

Board of Licensed Dietitians:  Fees, application requirements, licensure pathways, continuing education

Advisory Council on Hearing Aids:  Training requirements, qualification requirements, examination protocols, supervisor requirements, licensure pathways, licensure renewal, continuing education

Board of Direct Entry Midwifery:  Revise risk information required to be provided to clients

Respiratory Therapist and Polysomnographic Technologist Licensing Board:  Education and training for polysomnographic technologists

Cost of Licensing Varies Depending on Size of Licensee Base, Litigation, Other Factors

OHLA, at the direction of the Department of Administrative Services (DAS) and as part of a budget process leading up to legislative review and approval, developed a "Cost Per Service Unit"
(CPSU) model that breaks down the approximate cost of licensure and regulation per licensee. 

The resulting data shows that, all things being equal, the size of the licensee base determines the cost per service unit, or licensee.

Not surprisingly, the more than 30,000 licensees of the Board of Cosmetology help to establish a CPSU of 77, while the limited number of licensed direct entry midwives, at less than 100 licensees, and the cost of recent litigation related to the Board of Direct Entry Midwifery, has the board's CPSU at 2,983.

"For OHLA, we use this model to help us in budgeting and establishing licensing fees," says OHLA Fiscal Services and Licensing Manager Sylvie McMillan.  "The CPSU is a quick snapshot of what each profession is trending in its cost to the agency in licensing and regulatory oversight."

Other factors are taken into account in determining a board's CPSU, including the level of services and oversight OHLA provides in conducting qualification of applicants, examinations, inspections, investigations, as well as the number of meetings conducted on behalf of the board.

Click here for a complete list of CPSU's by board and the related budget numbers/percentages.

Cosmetology Citations Total Nearly $140,000 from Investigations of Complaints

Between July 2009 and June 2011, OHLA received 386 complaints against Board of Cosmetology licensees.  Of those complaints, OHLA found 120 violations and issued a total of $79,855 civil penalties.

Between July 1, 2011 and July 18, 2012, OHLA received 230 complaints against cosmetology licensees.  While 86 of those complaints remain under investigation, the 66 for which the agency's Regulatory Operations staff found violations generated $47,600 in civil penalties issued, for a total of nearly $140,000 in civil penalties issued for Board of Cosmetology licensees in a three-year period.

Violations ranged from providing fraudulent documentation, falsifying information on applications, failure to use the correct disinfectant to clean reusable utensils, foot spas for pedicures not being properly cleaned, and failure to store new/sanitized/disinfected utensils from used/dirty utensils.

OHLA also revoked four cosmetology practitioner licenses and suspended three practitioner licenses resulting from its investigations into fraudulent documentation and suspended 48 practitioner licenses for non-payment of child support.

"While it may seem apparent that falsifying documentation to obtain a practitioner's license would have serious consequences to the status of an individual's ability to provide services to the public, what sometimes surprises licensees is that their licensing status can be in jeopardy due to circumstances unrelated to their practice, such as non-payment of child support or failure to pay your state taxes," says OHLA Regulatory Operations Manager Bob Bothwell.

OHLA is able to determine the child support/tax status of its licensees by requiring that applicants in all professions provide their Social Security or Individual Taxpayer Indentification number under OHLA's overarching Oregon Administrative Rules (OAR) 331-030-0000(7), which links to overarching state and federal laws.

Get Informed!  Sign Up for One or More Contact Lists to Receive Licensing, Regulatory Information

Licensees and other agency stakeholders can take advantage of the Oregon Health Licensing Agency's contact distribution lists. When you sign up, you stay informed of what's happening within your licensing board and the agency.  Click here for more information and to sign up.

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OHLA At-a-Glance: 11 Boards, More than 36,000 Licensees

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