South Dakota's behavioral health sector added 14 providers in the latest CMS NPI registry update, representing less than 1% of the national weekly total. The state saw a recent surge in activity, with 9 providers added this week, making up most of the 10 new providers registered year-to-date. This cohort is composed of 11 individuals and 3 organizations, with new activity concentrated in cities like Rapid City and Sioux Falls.
ABA Workforce Composition
The update reveals a notable imbalance in the state's ABA workforce growth. While 5 providers registered with an RBT taxonomy, the single provider with a BCBA taxonomy is an organization, not an individual supervisor. This lack of new individual BCBAs to supervise the incoming RBTs points to a potential supervision gap within this group. The data also includes a mix of other professionals, such as speech-language pathologists and counselors, with 3 providers listing multiple taxonomies, which can indicate multidisciplinary roles.
Provider Demographics
Among the 11 individual providers, women represent the clear majority at 73%, with 8 female practitioners. The remainder includes 1 male provider and 2 nonbinary providers. No single employer was listed multiple times among the new registrants, suggesting a fragmented landscape of smaller practices and individual practitioners rather than the dominance of large, multi-state chains.
This influx of RBTs without a corresponding increase in individual BCBA supervisors highlights a potential strain on supervision capacity and access to qualified oversight for ABA services in the state.
