South Carolina Is Revalidating ABA Providers Now. Each Letter Gives 30 Days.

South Carolina Medicaid is revalidating ABA providers now. Bulletin MB# 26-027, issued August 12, 2026, put "Applied behavior analysis providers" on a rapid track: 5,713 providers to revalidate "within the next 12 months," with "documentation review, site visits and fingerprint-based criminal history background checks." Letters to all CMS- and SCDHHS-designated high-risk providers began going out that day.

The 12-month window isn't your deadline. SCDHHS's sample high-risk letter says: "You have 30 days from the date of this letter to complete and submit the online portion of your revalidation application. Failure to do so will result in termination." A letter mailed in August had a deadline in September, and that date has passed.

Why you might not have seen it

• It comes by mail, not email. The letter goes to "the primary practice location SCDHHS has on file."
• It's one letter per enrollment. The state's 2026 rapid cohort lists "Board Certified Behavior Analysts, Board Certified Assistant Behavior Analysts" alongside groups. Each enrolled clinician gets their own letter, with its own revalidation number and its own 30 days.
• You can't start without it. Revalidation "cannot begin until notification is issued," and the Provider Service Center won't read the revalidation number out over the phone.

Miss the deadline and SCDHHS treats you as "voluntarily terminated." Payments stop, and you have to reapply.

The fingerprint exception

Fingerprinting and the site visit can take longer than 30 days. The letter says that "as long as you submit a copy of your fingerprinting appointment confirmation along with other documents requested of you, you will not be terminated." The booking confirmation is what protects you, not the fingerprint result.

After this round

Under changes effective June 1, 2026, providers designated high-risk, whether federally or by state policy, "must complete revalidation annually." Everyone else revalidates every three years. SC's revalidation strategy, approved by CMS, adds more:

• it is "considering making FCBC mandatory for all rapid revalidation providers"
• it plans to add Rap Back, continuous monitoring of the criminal records of enrolled providers and owners who have been fingerprinted
• it's finalizing a nightly licensure data feed from SC's licensing agency, SCLLR
• it's evaluating single-source credentialing in place of separate MCO reviews

The driver is federal. CMS's April 23 letters asked every state for a swift revalidation of high-risk providers. Illinois, Utah and Missouri have also pulled ABA forward (Illinois, Utah).

The limits

The bulletin doesn't say how many of the 5,713 are ABA providers, or whether every BCBA and BCaBA enrollment gets a letter in this round. It doesn't mention a fee.

What you must know or do

• Owners: list every SC Medicaid enrollment you're responsible for: the group, each BCBA and each BCaBA. Call the Provider Service Center at (888) 289-0709, option 4, issue code REVAL. Ask, for each Medicaid legacy number, which primary practice location is on file and whether a letter has been issued.
• If a letter went out more than 30 days ago and nothing was submitted: make that call today. Ask for a duplicate letter.
• Each high-risk enrollee: book the fingerprint appointment the day the letter arrives, and submit the confirmation with the application.
• Owners: if an address on file is wrong, fix it now. The phone line can't change it. It takes a signed request on business letterhead.
• Owners: put a recurring annual revalidation date on the calendar, and decide who meets an unannounced site visit.