A. The Board of Mental Health and Substance Abuse Services shall promulgate rules and standards for certification of eating disorder treatment programs and for private facilities and organizations that offer eating disorder treatment services in this state. Such facilities and organizations shall be known as “Certified Eating Disorder Treatment Programs”.

B. For purposes of this section, “eating disorder treatment” means any treatment for anorexia nervosa, bulimia nervosa, or any other severe disturbances in eating behavior specified in the most current edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders.

C. Applications for certification as a certified eating disorder treatment program, pursuant to the provisions of this section, shall be made to the Department of Mental Health and Substance Abuse Services on prescribed forms. The Board, or the Commissioner upon delegation by the Board, may certify the program for a period of three (3) years subject to renewal as provided in the rules promulgated by the Board. Nothing in this section shall preclude the Department from making inspection visits to a program to determine program compliance.

D. Hospitals licensed by the State Department of Health shall be exempt from certification requirements. In addition, licensed physicians, licensed psychologists, licensed social workers, individual members of the clergy, licensed marital and family therapists, registered nurses, licensed behavioral practitioners, and licensed professional counselors shall be exempt from certification requirements; provided, however, these exemptions shall only apply to individual professional persons in their private practices and not to any eating disorder treatment program operated by such person.

E. The Department of Mental Health and Substance Abuse Services is authorized to establish and collect certification and renewal fees for certification of eating disorder treatment programs as provided in Section 3-324 of this title.

F. Failure to comply with rules and standards promulgated by the Board shall be grounds for revocation, suspension or nonrenewal of certification.

G. No eating disorder treatment program shall operate or continue to operate unless the facility complies with the rules promulgated by the Board and is certified as required by this section.

Added by Laws 2005, c. 195, § 16, eff. Nov. 1, 2005. Amended by Laws 2006, c. 97, § 7, eff. Nov. 1, 2006; Laws 2007, c. 130, § 4, eff. Nov. 1, 2007; Laws 2010, c. 287, § 16, eff. Nov. 1, 2010.