Senate Appropriations hears DD budget briefing; department urges time if accreditation requirement removed

Tina Bay, director of the Developmental Disability section at the North Dakota Department of Health and Human Services, summarized budget changes and program priorities for the DD (developmental disability) system, told the Senate Appropriations — Human Resources Division during its hearing that accreditation is a core part of the state’s quality framework and asked for time to develop an alternative if the Legislature removes that requirement.

Bay said the DD system “costs over $810,000,000” and described accreditation as providing “an external unbiased third party review of policies, practices, and the experiences of those receiving services.” She asked the committee that, if Section 28 of Engrossed House Bill 1012 removes the accreditation requirement, the department be given time to develop another oversight approach.

The request matters because the department presented data showing a gap between provider self-assessments and accreditation findings: for one rights-protection measure providers rated themselves at 100% on evidence of practice while the accreditation reviewer, CQL, found 75% and the national benchmark was 54.3%; for policy-and-procedure compliance CQL reviewed 58.3% against a 43.8% national benchmark. Bay used those figures to argue that a third-party review adds objectivity to…