HOPE Act Rate Study Cost Report Due September 30
If your OMHC, PRP, or SUD Level 2 program has not filed the HOPE Act rate study cost survey, this is the week to close it out. The deadline is September 30, 2026. MDH extended once, from August 28, and said it would not extend again.
Three rules that trip people up
- One survey per Maryland Medicaid provider number, with every site under that number on the same workbook.
- RRP costs are reported under PRP.
- Supported employment is reported in "other" under its own codes.
If you are short on time
There is no partial or modified submission. A rough allocation of shared staff and overhead across programs, written down and reconciled so that units billed tie to your general ledger, is better than not filing. Myers and Stauffer reviews each submission and follows up on the ones that do not reconcile.
Why it matters past Wednesday
The survey is phase one of the cost based rate study Maryland first ordered in 2017 and never completed. This year's law (HB 772 and SB 39) sets a June 30, 2028 deadline for that study and creates a workgroup to build rate methodologies from the data. The workgroup's sampling rules exclude programs founded after 2020, so an established program that files is in the base; one that does not is not.
Full breakdown of what the survey requires: The HOPE Act Rate Study Cost Report Is Due September 30. The longer policy context: Maryland Revived Its Behavioral Health Rate Study With a 2028 Deadline.