On Friday, the Behavioral Health Administration (BHA) announced a 6-month pause on new license applications for Psychiatric Rehabilitation Programs (PRP), Residential Rehabilitation Programs (RRP), Intensive Outpatient Programs (IOP), and Partial Hospitalization Programs (PHP). Deputy Secretary Alyssa Lord stated, “This pause in new provider applications will allow the Department to assess and evaluate the provider landscape, the quality of care rendered, compliance with state and federal regulations, and identify and mitigate potential fraud, waste, and abuse.” You can read the full release here.
While it is unclear what the future holds for these services or licensing, this action underscores BHA's commitment to enhancing program monitoring and holding providers accountable to quality standards, COMAR regulations, and other compliance requirements.
Given this development by BHA, we recommend the following actions:
For Licensed Organizations:
Ensure leadership and staff are well-educated on compliance and quality management.
Regularly assess your operations, business and billing practices, human resources practices, documentation, and clinical practices to ensure they are in compliance.
Continuously evaluate the level of quality care you are providing and strive for improvement.
For Organizations Planning for a License:
Continue your planning, but be flexible, innovative, and focused on quality and compliance.
Use this delay to enhance your knowledge, skills, abilities, and finances.
Consider how your vision can apply to other services and pause any new financial investments in these services until BHA's direction is clear.
For Organizations with Licenses in the Pipeline:
Be prepared for increased and ongoing scrutiny.
Ensure leadership and staff are well-educated on compliance and quality management.
Plan for the delivery of quality services and compliant operations.
Regularly assess your operations, business and billing practices, human resources practices, documentation, and clinical practices to ensure they are in compliance.
Continuously evaluate the level of quality care you are providing and strive for improvement.
As partners to the behavioral health community across the state, we remain dedicated to ensuring that vulnerable individuals have access to high-quality care. We continue to support clinical and non-clinical owners and leadership in understanding and implementing high-quality behavioral health practices.
Please reach out to us at connect@foxxchubby.com or call 443-219-8400 if you or your organization need help understanding new developments with BHA, compliance, or quality management.
In Partnership,
Venesa and the Foxx Chubby HPC Team!
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