The powers and duties of the council.

The council shall have the following powers and duties:

(1) Assess the size, quality and stability of the home care workforce in Missouri and the ability of the existing workforce to meet the growing and changing needs of both aging and disabled consumers;

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(2) Encourage eligible individuals to serve as personal care attendants;

(3) Provide training on a voluntary basis, either directly or through contracts, in cooperation with vendors, as defined in subdivision (5) of section 208.865, for prospective and current personal care attendants;

(4) Recommend minimum qualifications for personal care attendants to the department of health and senior services;

(5) Establish and maintain a statewide list of eligible, available personal care attendants, in cooperation with vendors, including attendants available to provide respite and replacement services. In order to facilitate the creation of such a list, all vendors shall provide the council with the list of persons eligible to be a personal care attendant which vendors are required to maintain under subsection 4 of section 208.906 and subdivision (3) of subsection 1 of section 208.918. The council shall ensure^* that all personal care attendants placed on the statewide list are registered with the family care safety registry as provided in sections 210.900 to 210.936 and are not listed on any of the background check lists in the family care safety registry, absent a good cause waiver obtained from the department pursuant to section 192.2495. All consumers seeking personal care attendants, whether or not they are participants in the consumer directed services program, shall have access to the statewide list;

(6) Provide routine, emergency, respite, and replacement referrals of eligible and available personal care attendants to vendors and consumers;

(7) In cooperation with the Missouri state highway patrol, the department of social services’ children’s division, the department of mental health, the department of health and senior services, and vendors and on an on-going basis, assess existing mechanisms for preventing abuse and neglect of consumers in the home care setting and recommend improvements to those agencies and the general assembly. As part of this duty, members and employees of the council shall have access to the employee disqualification list established in section 192.2490 and the family care safety registry. Members and employees of the council shall report to the department of health and senior services when they have reasonable cause to believe that a consumer has been abused or neglected as defined in section 192.2400, subject to the same standards set forth in section 208.912;

(8) Recommend the wage rate or rates to be paid personal care attendants and any economic benefits to be received by personal care attendants to the general assembly. The department shall retain its existing authority to establish the Medicaid reimbursement rate for personal care assistance services under subsection 2 of section 208.903;

(9) Establish other terms and conditions of employment of personal care attendants consistent with consumers’ right to hire, fire, train, and supervise personal care attendants;

(10) Cooperate with the department of health and senior services and vendors to improve the provision of personal care assistance services;

(11) In carrying out its powers and duties under sections 208.850 to 208.871, the council may:

(a) Make and execute contracts and all other instruments necessary or convenient for the performance of its duties or exercise of its powers;

(b) Issue rules under the Missouri administrative procedures act, chapter 536, as necessary for the purposes and policies of sections 208.850 to 208.871. Any rule or portion of a rule, as that term is defined in section 536.010, that is created under the authority delegated in this section, shall become effective only if it complies with and is subject to all of the provisions of chapter 536 and, if applicable, section 536.028. This section and chapter 536 are nonseverable and if any of the powers vested with the general assembly pursuant to chapter 536 to review, to delay the effective date, or to disapprove and annul a rule are subsequently held unconstitutional, then the grant of rulemaking authority and any rule proposed or adopted after August 28, 2008, shall be invalid and void;

(c) Establish offices, employ an executive director and such other staff as is necessary to carry out its functions and fix their compensation, retain contractors as necessary and prescribe their duties and power, incur expenses, and create such liabilities as are reasonable and proper for the administration of sections 208.850 to 208.871;

(d) Solicit and accept for use any grant of money, services or property from the federal government, the state, or any political subdivision or agency thereof, including federal matching funds under Title XIX of the federal Social Security Act, and do all things necessary to cooperate with the federal government, the state, or any political subdivision or agency thereof in making an application for any grant;

(e) Keep records and engage in research and the gathering of relevant statistics;

(f) Acquire, hold, or dispose of personal property or any interest therein, and contract for, lease, or otherwise provide facilities for the activities conducted under this measure;

(g) Sue and be sued in its own name;

(h) Delegate to the appropriate persons the power to execute contracts and other instruments on its behalf and delegate any of its powers and duties if consistent with the purposes of sections 208.850 to 208.871; and

(i) Do other acts necessary or convenient to execute the powers expressly granted to it.