Penguin Health
South Dakota · Medicaid · Applied behavior analysis
South Dakota's December 2025 manual bills nothing it can't read
South Dakota pairs a young ABA Billing and Policy Manual, published December 2025, with a general documentation regulation, ARSD 67:16:01:08, that has teeth: every entry signed and dated by the renderer with credentials, a supervising analyst's countersignature on RBT and BCaBA entries, and both the date the entry was made and the date of service. The manual's non-billable list is blunter still: documentation time itself is not billable. The matching rule set lives in the rules library in the Penguin Health app.
The ABA Billing and Policy Manual.
RBT and BCaBA entries carry the supervising analyst's countersignature.
The date of the entry and the date of service.
Plus travel, parent-rendered services, and supervision.
The manual
What the manual and ARSD 67:16:01:08 require
The regulation sets the record-keeping spine (who signed, with what credentials, on which dates) and the manual adds the ABA specifics: per-code time documentation, treatment responses in the progress note, and a non-billable list that keeps overhead out of the billed window.
- Each entry signed and dated by the rendering individual, with their credentials noted.
- An entry by an RBT or BCaBA carries the supervising analyst's countersignature; a licensed analyst's entry stands on one signature.
- The date the entry was made and the date of service, so late notes are visible on their face.
- Start and end times for timed codes, and the treatment responses and any changes recorded in the progress note.
- Data recording and documentation time; travel and transportation; services rendered by a parent; supervision time.
- Prior authorization with a treatment plan on the state's cadence.
The checklist
What a South Dakota ABA note has to show
Each item below names its source and the Penguin rule that checks it. South Dakota sets no fixed note-completion deadline, but the dual-date requirement makes late entries visible, so the dates have to be right.
| The note shows | What that means in practice | Source | Rule |
|---|---|---|---|
| Signed and dated by the renderer, with credentials | The rendering individual, identifiable and credentialed. | ARSD 67:16:01:08 | SD-1 |
| A supervisor countersignature on RBT and BCaBA entries | Technician entries carry the supervising analyst's signature too. | ARSD 67:16:01:08 | SD-2 |
| The date of the entry and the date of service | Both dates, with the service date matching the billing. | ARSD 67:16:01:08 | SD-3 |
| Start and end times matching the billing | Timed codes agree with the claim. | ABA manual | SD-4 |
| Treatment responses and changes in the progress note | How the client responded, and what changed. | ABA manual | SD-5 |
| No non-billable time inside the billed window | Documentation, travel, parent-rendered services, and supervision stay outside it. | ABA manual | SD-6 |
In the rules library
Six South Dakota rules, ready to turn on
Open the rules library in the Penguin Health app, choose South Dakota Medicaid ABA, and click Add to organization. Rules your organization already has are left alone, so adding the set twice only fills gaps. After adding, edit any rule or add your own alongside them.
Each rule runs only on notes billed to South Dakota Medicaid payers. Penguin checks the CentralReach payer name, so a South Dakota rule never fires on a commercial note in the same organization, and an organization whose payer names differ edits that match after adding the set.
Penguin reads signed session notes from CentralReach, read-only, after signature and before the claim, and runs the set on every note. Deterministic rules compare record fields. AI rules are read by the AI, which returns a pass or fail with a one-sentence reason.
Six rules for the December 2025 South Dakota ABA manual and ARSD 67:16:01:08: signatures with countersignature, dual dates, per-code times, responses, and the non-billable list including documentation time itself.
- reviewed
- Oct 26, 2026
- runs on
- Notes billed to South Dakota Medicaid payers
- sources
- SD Medicaid ABA Billing and Policy Manual, Dec 2025; ARSD 67:16:01:08 (November 2023 Documentation and Record Keeping manual)
- watching
- Both manuals on the South Dakota Medicaid site
Every failure ships with QA guidance for that program code: an educational email, numbered action steps, and a QA email pre-filled with the date of service and a link to the note. Each reviewer action is written to a write-once audit log with seven-year retention. Billing Medicaid in more than one state? The rules library covers twenty-nine, including Nebraska and Minnesota.
Maintained by Penguin
We watch the manuals so the rules never go stale
South Dakota's ABA manual is young, published December 2025, and young manuals get revised. The South Dakota set is tied to both source documents.
The ABA Billing and Policy Manual and the Documentation and Record Keeping manual. Penguin fetches the sources on a schedule and archives every revision.
We rewrite the affected rule, cite the document that changed it, and date the review. The set shows its sources and review date in the library.
An updated rule runs in the next scheduled validation and on demand against notes you have already reviewed, so a changed requirement shows you exactly which past notes it touches.
- Documentation and Record Keeping manual
The ARSD 67:16:01:08 standard: signatures with credentials, countersignatures, and the dual-date requirement.
- The ABA Billing and Policy Manual publishes
Per-code time documentation, treatment responses, and the non-billable list.
LibrarySD-1 through SD-6 are built against these two documents.
- South Dakota set reviewed
Checked against both manuals. Current.
- WatchingThe next edition
When either manual is reissued, the set is updated and every organization using it gets the change.
State alerts
Get an email when South Dakota changes its documentation rules
We fingerprint 56 official payer documents every week, South Dakota's among them. When one changes, a person verifies what changed and writes a short plain-language summary before anything is sent. A few emails a year, not a newsletter. Unsubscribe anytime.
Check your inbox: confirm your email and you are on the list.
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Next step
Run a month of South Dakota notes through Penguin
Bring one month of session notes. We add the South Dakota set from the rules library, run it, show every finding beside the source it maps to, and hand your QA lead the fix for each one. Or get a demo account and click through Penguin on your own time first.