Bill
SB 2190
North Dakota would require Medicaid to cover ABA, dental screening/assessment, family adaptive behavioral treatment, dental case management, and asynchronous teledentistry (with ex
Status
- Introduced: March 10, 2025 (documented committee activity earlier in Feb 2025).
- Committee action: Adopted by Human Services Committee (committee report dated Feb 3, 2025).
- Floor action: Second reading — failed to pass (recorded vote: yeas 14, nays 78). Bill did not become law.
Note on source materials: the file provided includes text and amendment histories from multiple states (North Dakota, Illinois, Mississippi) that appear intermixed. The summary below focuses on the North Dakota statutory amendment shown in the committee/engrossed versions (Sixty‑ninth Legislative Assembly) — section 50‑24.1‑45 of the North Dakota Century Code.
Purpose and intent
- To expand the list of services that must be covered under North Dakota medical assistance (Medicaid) by explicitly requiring payment for several oral‑health and behavioral‑health services, and to specify applicability with respect to Medicaid expansion populations.
Key provisions (as drafted)
- Amends and reenacts NDCC § 50‑24.1‑45 to require medical assistance coverage to include payment for:
1. Services to continue to carry out plans and recommendations of applied behavioral analysis (ABA).
2. Dental screening and assessment to identify individuals needing further assessment, diagnostics, or treatment.
3. Family adaptive behavioral treatment and guidance to educate parents and caregivers.
4. Dental case management for maintenance of oral health for special populations (including elderly, persons with special needs, medically fragile individuals, and children).
5. Asynchronous teledentistry to reduce barriers, support outreach, and integrate oral health into general health care settings (for identification and referral of treatment needs).
6. Applied behavioral analysis to assess and treat common behavioral problems across the lifespan of individuals with a variety of psychological and medical diagnoses (text names autism spectrum disorder in an earlier/alternate engrossed version).
- Applicability limitation: the services listed in subsections 2, 3, 4 and 5 (dental screening/assessment; family adaptive behavioral treatment and guidance; dental case management; asynchronous teledentistry) and subsection 5 (ABA) are stated not to apply to Medicaid expansion (i.e., these specified services would not be required for the Medicaid expansion population).
Who would be affected
- Medicaid beneficiaries in North Dakota (particularly children, elderly, individuals with special needs/medical fragility, and persons with autism spectrum disorder or other behavioral health diagnoses).
- Medicaid providers (dental providers, behavioral health and ABA providers, case managers, and entities using teledentistry).
- The Department of Human Services/Medicaid program — administrative implementation, provider payment, and program budgeting.
Potential impacts and implementation notes
- Access: the bill is designed to increase coverage of oral‑health screening/case management and behavioral services (including ABA), which could improve detection and treatment access for vulnerable populations.
- Fiscal: the bill would likely increase Medicaid expenditures (additional covered services and associated provider payments). No fiscal figures are included in the provided text; implementation would require benefit translation into billing codes, rate-setting, and likely appropriation or budget adjustment.
- Administrative: DHS/Medicaid would need to adopt rules, establish provider qualifications and payment methodologies (including telehealth/teledentistry standards), and determine how the “not apply to Medicaid expansion” limitation is operationalized.
- Legislative outcome: the bill failed on second reading and did not become law in the recorded session.
If you want, I can:
- Extract the precise bill language with corrected subsection numbering and compare versions; or
- Draft a short fiscal and operational checklist for the Medicaid agency to implement the covered services if the bill is reintroduced.
Compiled from official sources — confirm details with the bill’s official record.
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