South Dakota added 7 new behavioral health providers in the latest weekly CMS NPI registry update. This represents 0% of the national weekly total, indicating a negligible contribution to the overall national growth in this specific reporting period. The low number of new entries suggests a slower expansion of the behavioral health workforce in the state compared to more populous regions.
Provider Credentials and Specializations
Of the 7 new providers, 4 are individuals and 3 are organizations. Crucially for the ABA community, this week's update for South Dakota includes no new Board Certified Behavior Analysts (BCBAs) or Registered Behavior Technicians (RBTs). The specific individual credentials listed are one LCSW-PIP and one M.A., CCC-SLP, indicating additions in clinical social work and speech-language pathology rather than applied behavior analysis. This absence of new ABA professionals highlights a potential gap in the pipeline for direct ABA service delivery and supervision capacity in the state. Additionally, 2 providers in South Dakota's NPI registry are listed with multiple taxonomies, indicating a broader scope of practice across different specialties.
Workforce Demographics
Among the 4 individual providers added this week, the workforce is exclusively female, with women accounting for 100%. No male or nonbinary individual providers were added. The new providers are distributed across several cities, including Sioux Falls, Watertown, Elk Point, and Parkston. No specific organizations appeared multiple times in this week's data, suggesting a mix of independent practices and smaller entities rather than large multi-state chains.
The lack of new ABA-specific credentials in this update suggests that South Dakota continues to face challenges in growing its applied behavior analysis workforce, potentially impacting access to services for individuals needing ABA interventions.
