An in-home care agency
A licensed agency that sends caregivers to your parent's house for personal care — bathing, dressing, meals, company.
Oregon licenses these, which surprises most families, and the license carries a classification that decides what the agency is legally allowed to do. An agency licensed Limited may not give your mother her pills. That is the first thing to check and it takes one look at the license.
The four words on the license, and what each one means
Oregon licenses in-home care agencies in four classes, and the rule spells out exactly what separates them. Limited: personal care, which may include reminding her to take medication. Basic: the same, plus medication assistance. Intermediate: the same, plus medication administration. Comprehensive: the same, plus nursing services. The rule also says an agency may not use any descriptive title other than its own classification when it advertises. So an agency that talks about 'nursing support' while holding a Basic license is describing something it is not licensed to do, and you can check which one it holds in about thirty seconds.
What to ask
1. What classification is your license, and what is your license number?
It is the one fact that decides what they may legally do in your mother's house, and it is checkable against the state's own list in a minute.
A bad answer sounds like: Not knowing. Also: an answer that describes services rather than naming a class — the four names are Limited, Basic, Intermediate and Comprehensive, and an agency knows which one it holds.
2. Is the caregiver your employee, or am I the employer?
This is the largest hidden difference in the whole category. An agency's caregiver is the agency's employee: they carry the payroll taxes, the workers' compensation, the liability insurance and the background check. A referral or matching service hands you a person and leaves all four with you.
A bad answer sounds like: 'We're a matching platform.' That is a legitimate business and it is not this one — it belongs in the hiring-directly kit, with the obligations that come with it.
3. Who comes when my regular caregiver is sick, and how quickly?
Coverage is the thing families discover is missing on the worst possible morning. The whole practical advantage of an agency over hiring directly is that a no-show is their problem, not yours — so it is fair to ask what happens.
A bad answer sounds like: 'That rarely happens.' Ask for the actual arrangement: a named backup, a pool, a call-out window.
4. What screening did this specific caregiver go through, and when?
Oregon rules require an agency to complete a criminal records check and a fitness determination before an individual has direct client contact. The question is not whether they run checks in principle; it is when this person's was done.
A bad answer sounds like: 'Everyone is background checked' with no date and no scope.
5. Who writes the service plan, who visits to check it is working, and how often?
Oregon's rules require a service plan and an initial visit with monitoring. A family that never sees a supervisor is a family whose plan exists on paper.
A bad answer sounds like: No named supervisor, or monitoring that happens 'as needed' with nothing scheduled.
6. What is the minimum number of hours per visit, and is there a minimum per week?
Two-hour or four-hour minimums are common and they change the arithmetic completely: if she needs forty minutes of help in the morning, a four-hour minimum triples the bill.
A bad answer sounds like: A quoted hourly rate with the minimum only appearing in the contract.
7. What are the overtime, holiday, weekend, mileage and cancellation charges?
The hourly rate is not the bill. These are all normal charges and none of them is a red flag; not being told about them is.
A bad answer sounds like: 'It's all included' — followed by a contract that itemises five surcharges.
What to check yourself
This is the half almost nobody does, and it is free. A public record answers questions no conversation will.
That the agency is on Oregon's licensed list, and what class it holds
The Oregon Health Authority publishes every licensed in-home care agency, with its classification, license number and expiry date. Search for the name they trade under as well as their legal name — they are often different.
That the license has not expired
The list carries an expiry date per agency, and expired rows do appear on it. Check the date, not just the presence of a row.
Liability insurance and workers' compensation, in writing
Ask for a certificate of insurance naming the agency. If a caregiver is hurt in your mother's house and there is no workers' compensation behind them, the exposure lands on the household.
The contract's termination clause
How much notice do you have to give to stop, and is there a fee? This is the clause that decides whether an arrangement that is not working can be ended this week or next month.
What should worry you
None of these is proof of anything on its own. Each one is a reason to ask one more question before you decide.
- A classification that does not cover what they are describing — nursing talk on a Basic license.
- No license number offered, or one that does not appear on the state list.
- Pressure to sign a long minimum-hours commitment before a caregiver has ever been in the house.
- The same caregiver is promised, and the contract names nobody.
- Payment asked for in cash, or in advance for more than a short period.
- Nobody from the agency has met your parent before care starts.
Where this comes from
Every legal claim on this page is a paraphrase of one of these, read on the date shown. Nothing here is our opinion about what the law requires.
- OAR 333-536-0007 — In-Home Care Agencies: Classification — The four in-home care classifications and what each may provide, quoted from the rule. Read 2026-08-12.
- OAR 333-536-0093 — Criminal Records Checks; 333-536-0065 Service Plan; 333-536-0066 Initial Visit and Monitoring — That an agency must complete a records check and fitness determination before direct client contact, and must produce a service plan with monitoring. Read 2026-08-12.
- ORS 443.370, 443.373, 443.376 — long-term care referral agents — The definition of a long-term care referral, the registration requirement, and the disclosure duties. Read 2026-08-12.
- Oregon DHS long-term care referral agent register — The public search a family uses to check an advisor. Read 2026-08-12.
- Oregon Health Authority — licensed in-home care agencies, home health agencies, hospices — 235 licensed in-home care agencies with classification and expiry; 62 licensed home health agencies; 65 hospices. Read 2026-08-12.
- CMS Provider Data Catalog — Home Health Care Agencies — 51 Medicare-certified home health agencies in Oregon, against the state's 62. Read 2026-08-12.
- Oregon DHS Licensed Long-Term Care Settings Search — Inspection reports, substantiated violations and regulatory actions per facility, refreshed every 24 hours. Read 2026-08-09.
- Oregon Department of Human Services — Carina — That the state's care-matching service is open to Medicaid, OPI and OPI-M consumers, and not to private-pay families. Read 2026-08-12.
- Oregon Office of the Long-Term Care Ombudsman — That the Ombudsman is a free, independent advocate for residents of licensed long-term care settings, and its toll-free number. Read 2026-08-12.
- Oregon DHS Long-Term Care Referral Registry — consumer resources — The state's own description of the Ombudsman's service, quoted on the touring kit. Read 2026-08-12.