Iowa saw 44 behavioral health providers added in the latest CMS NPI registry update. With a 0% share of the national weekly total, this indicates a relatively small, but consistent, growth in the state's behavioral health workforce. Of these, 22 providers were new this week, contributing to 26 new providers this year. The additions comprise 30 individual practitioners and 14 organizations.
ABA Workforce Composition
Focusing on the applied behavior analysis field, Iowa's update includes 5 providers with BCBA credentials and 3 providers with RBT credentials. Notably, there were no individuals reported with both BCBA and RBT credentials in this update. The ratio of BCBAs to RBTs, at approximately 5:3, is unusual for the ABA field, where a higher ratio of RBTs to BCBA supervisors is typically observed. This might suggest a greater need for RBTs to support direct service delivery under BCBA supervision, or that many RBTs are registered under other taxonomies.
Provider Demographics
Among the individual providers, the gender breakdown shows a significant female presence, with 25 individuals (83%) identified as female. 4 individuals (13%) are male, and 1 individual (3%) is nonbinary. No specific organizations appeared multiple times in this week's data to highlight as dominant employers. The top cities for these new providers include Des Moines, Cedar Rapids, and Iowa City.
This data suggests a modest but steady expansion of Iowa's behavioral health services, with a particular need to monitor the balance of BCBA supervisors to RBT direct service providers for sustainable ABA access.
