Connecticut License Reinstatement

Author: A. Ant, CADC-II, Licensing & Accreditation Expert

Disclaimer: This content is provided for general informational purposes only and should not be construed as legal, regulatory, or licensing advice. Requirements change frequently. Consult qualified professionals for guidance specific to your situation.

Connecticut’s facility enforcement statute reads like a menu, and since 2024 one of the items on it has been money. After a hearing, Conn. Gen. Stat. 19a-494 gives the commissioner a choice among revocation, suspension, censure, a letter of reprimand, probation with reporting, limits on acquiring other facilities, a compliance order, a directed plan of correction and “a civil penalty not to exceed twenty-five thousand dollars.” P.A. 24-68 added the penalty effective July 1, 2024, and P.A. 25-96, effective June 24, 2025, widened the section to cover requirements relating to institutions licensed under the title. We found no reinstatement procedure in the facility statutes or in the SA licensing rule.

This guide follows a facility licensed by the Connecticut Department of Public Health (DPH), Facility Licensing and Investigations Section (FLIS) from a deficiency notice through a hearing and an appeal, and then, if it comes to that, back to a fresh application. Counselor credentials get a short section at the end. For the licensing tracks themselves, start with Connecticut Behavioral Health Licensing.

Notice of Noncompliance and the Ten-Business-Day Plan

This section restates Conn. Gen. Stat. 19a-496 and its 2024 amendment. The planning advice in the last two sentences is ours.

Most Connecticut enforcement begins with an inspection report. When an inspection turns up noncompliance, 19a-496 requires DPH to put it in a written notice, and the institution’s plan of correction is due “ten business days after such institution receives a notice of noncompliance.” That is about two calendar weeks to rewrite a policy, retrain staff and show the fix. Since P.A. 24-141 took effect on June 4, 2024, failing to follow the plan is itself grounds for discipline. So we write into a plan only what the facility can document by the dates it names, because DPH will come back and check.

Access matters too. Under the SA rule, refusing to give DPH access to the facility or its records is grounds for denial or revocation on its own (19a-495-570(c)(5)(A)).

Hearings, Summary Orders and Appeal

Discipline under 19a-494 requires a hearing held in accordance with chapter 54 of the General Statutes. Notice goes out by registered or certified mail, and the hearing can be no sooner than thirty days after that notice is mailed or served.

Emergencies skip the wait. Section 19a-494a lets the commissioner summarily order a license revoked or suspended, bar the institution from contracting with new patients, or limit the license, including by reducing patient capacity. The follow-up proceedings must be “promptly instituted and determined,” so a facility under a summary order should expect a fast hearing and prepare for it the same week.

A licensee, or an applicant whose license was denied, can appeal the final decision under Conn. Gen. Stat. 4-183, which 19a-501 points to. A DSS hearing decision citing 4-183 gives the appellant 45 days from the mailing of the decision to take the case to Superior Court. We could not read 4-183 itself, so treat the window as generally 45 days on DSS’s description and have counsel confirm it for your decision. Count from the mailing date, not the day the envelope is opened.

When a License Lapses

DPH runs renewals online through Connecticut eLicense, and 570(c)(3)(B) asks for the renewal no later than 30 days before expiration. Running a facility without a current license exposes it to an injunction DPH can seek in the name of the state under 19a-503.

A newer penalty may also apply. The General Assembly’s Office of Legislative Research summarizes PA 26-68 as letting DPH, after a hearing, fine anyone who runs an unlicensed health care facility that needs a DPH license up to $5,000 per day, starting October 1, 2026. OLR also says the act makes the same conduct a crime, generally a class C misdemeanor, and that the criminal penalty does not reach an institution that applied to renew within 60 days after its license lapsed. As OLR describes it, that 60-day allowance is written into the criminal side only, not the civil fine. These points come from OLR’s summary, which we have read, and not from the act, so confirm them with DPH before a lapsed license becomes part of your plan.

Starting Over After Revocation

The statutes are silent on this point, so the paragraph below is interpretation on our part.

We found no waiting period after revocation in 19a-491, 19a-493, 19a-494 or the SA rule, and nothing that reinstates a revoked facility license. A comeback therefore starts as a new initial application through FLIS, and if the project counts as establishing a new health care facility, a new Certificate of Need review as well (19a-638). DPH will see the history. When it reviews a change of ownership, 19a-493(c) has the commissioner consider whether each proposed owner “demonstrates character and competence” and has an acceptable record of compliance at facilities it ran over the prior five years. We would expect the same lens on a re-application from the same owners. Bring the correction record from the old license: what failed, what changed and how you verified it.

Closing, Selling or Transferring a Troubled Program

A license can’t move to another entity, location or facility (570(c)(4)(B)). A buyer taking over a program under enforcement needs DPH’s prior approval of the ownership change, with the application filed no later than 120 days before the change (19a-493(c)), and the SA rule separately asks for notice ninety days in advance. An owner who decides to close instead gives 30 days’ written notice to DPH, clients and payors and returns the license within seven days (570(c)(5)(B)).

Counselor Credentials That Lapse

Individual credentials run on a separate track. DPH’s Practitioner Licensing and Investigations Section issues the LADC and the CAC, and its alcohol and drug counselor page links a document titled “Documentation Required for Reinstatement of a Lapsed ADC License/Certificate.” We have not reviewed what that document asks for. Questions go to dph.counselorsteam@ct.gov or (860) 509-7603. Because Conn. Gen. Stat. 20-74s bars the practice of alcohol and drug counseling without a license except under listed exemptions, our advice is to move a counselor whose credential has lapsed off counseling work until it is restored, unless counsel confirms an exemption such as supervised paid work applies.

Frequently Asked Questions

Staring at a DPH notice of noncompliance and a ten-business-day clock? Contact us.

Sources

• Conn. Gen. Stat. 19a-494, via Justia: Disciplinary action, civil penalty (checked October 13, 2026)
• Connecticut General Assembly: 2026 Supplement, chapter 368v (P.A. 25-96 amendments) (checked October 13, 2026)
• Conn. Gen. Stat. 19a-494a, via Justia: Summary orders (checked October 13, 2026)
• Conn. Gen. Stat. 19a-496, via Justia: Inspections, notice of noncompliance, plan of correction (checked October 13, 2026)
• Conn. Gen. Stat. 19a-501, via Justia: Appeal (checked October 13, 2026)
• Conn. Gen. Stat. 19a-503, via Justia: Injunction against unlicensed operation (checked October 13, 2026)
• Conn. Gen. Stat. 19a-493, via Justia: License term, change of ownership (checked October 13, 2026)
• Conn. Gen. Stat. 19a-491, via Justia: License required (checked October 13, 2026)
• Conn. Gen. Stat. 19a-638, via Justia: Certificate of Need requirements (checked October 13, 2026)
• Regs. Conn. State Agencies 19a-495-570, DPH Public Health Code: Private freestanding facilities for substance abusive or dependent persons (PDF) (checked October 13, 2026)
• Regs. Conn. State Agencies 19a-495-570, via Cornell LII: Licensure of private freestanding facilities for substance abusive or dependent persons (checked October 13, 2026)
• Connecticut DSS: Fair hearing decision stating the 4-183 appeal period (PDF) (checked October 13, 2026)
• Connecticut Office of Legislative Research: 2026 Acts Affecting Health Professions and Institutions, 2026-R-0080 (PDF) (checked October 13, 2026)
• Connecticut DPH, Facility Licensing and Investigations Section: Facility Licensing (eLicense renewals, application requests) (checked October 13, 2026)
• Connecticut DPH: Certificate of Need (checked October 13, 2026)
• Connecticut DPH: Alcohol and Drug Counselor (lapsed credential reinstatement) (checked October 13, 2026)
• Conn. Gen. Stat. 20-74s, via Justia: Alcohol and drug counselors (checked October 13, 2026)