West Virginia 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.

West Virginia has no formal “reinstatement” procedure for a behavioral health center license. What it has is an enforcement ladder written into the Behavioral Health Centers Licensure rule, now 71CSR25 under the Office of the Inspector General (the Secretary of State lists every version of the older 64CSR11 as historical), plus hearing and appeal rights that decide whether a cited program keeps its doors open. Where you land on that ladder determines what getting back to good standing will actually take.

About the rule text used here: 71CSR25 was amended effective May 1, 2026, and we checked that version for sections 2, 4.1.4 through 4.1.6, 4.4.1 through 4.4.3, 4.6.8, 4.9.1, 13.6, 13.8.1 and the $20,000 fraud penalty. The other rule provisions cited below (4.1.2, 4.1.3, 4.1.7 through 4.1.9, 4.2, the later parts of 4.9, 13.1 through 13.4, 13.7, and the other 13.3 dollar amounts) were read in the June 5, 2025 text on a public rules mirror, and the section numbers we checked did not move between versions. Confirm those against the current rule before you rely on a deadline.

OHFLAC’s Enforcement Authority

The statute is short. W. Va. Code 27-9-1 bars any behavioral health center from providing services without an OHFLAC license and lets the OHFLAC director “impose a civil money penalty, suspend, or revoke the license of any center for good cause after reasonable notice.” The rule supplies the detail. A license covers only the provider and the location or locations named in the application, and it is not transferable (4.1.2). A provider whose ownership is changing must tell the Director before the sale or merger, and a new license is required (4.1.4). An invalid license goes back to the Director on written demand (4.1.3).

Inspection power reaches past licensed sites, too. The Director may enter any practice, office, or facility reasonably believed to be operating as an unlicensed behavioral health center (4.1.7). If someone refuses entry, the Director, working with the Inspector General, petitions the Circuit Court of Kanawha County or the circuit court of the county where the facility sits for an inspection warrant (4.1.8). An operation found running without a license has 10 days to apply for one (4.1.9).

Responding to an OHFLAC Finding

OHFLAC can inspect announced or unannounced, and it inspects every licensed center 30 to 90 days before the license expires (4.6.8). The Director’s report is due within 10 working days after the inspection ends (4.6.9). Then the provider’s clock starts: a written plan of correction, with the specific corrective actions and completion dates, is due within 10 working days after you receive the report (4.9.1). The Director has 10 working days to approve, modify, or reject it (4.9.2). A rejected plan gets one resubmission, again within 10 working days, and if that second plan still can’t be approved the Director writes a directed plan of correction, which the final report labels as directed (4.9.4). Anything posing an immediate risk to health or safety has to be fixed at once rather than on the plan’s schedule (4.9.5).

When a citation is wrong on the facts or the law, not just painful, the rule offers informal dispute resolution (13.7). The request goes in writing with the plan of correction, supporting documents attached, and no plan is required for the citations you are contesting. Depending on what the provider asks for, the review goes either to an internal team that had no part in the survey or to an independent review organization accredited by URAC. It is not a formal hearing, and using it does not give up your right to one. Watch the cost rules in 13.7.4: if the reviewer upholds every contested deficiency, the provider repays the Director for the reviewer’s charge, and a face-to-face conference costs the provider whatever it runs above a phone conference no matter who wins.

Provisional Licenses

OHFLAC issues a provisional license when a provider is not in substantial compliance with the rule but does not pose a significant risk to consumers’ rights, health, or safety (4.4.3). It runs no more than six months, has to be posted publicly at the facility, and generally cannot be reissued back to back (the rule carves out a limited exception tied to State Fire Marshal recommendations). New programs face a similar limit from the other direction: an initial license also lasts no more than six months and “shall not be re-issued” (4.4.1). Either way, the six months is the window to reach full compliance before the next inspection, not a holding pattern.

Denial, Revocation, Closure Orders, and Civil Money Penalties

Section 13.1 of the rule lets the Director, in consultation with the Inspector General, deny an application or renewal, modify or revoke a license, or order an admissions ban or a cut in consumer census for any of these reasons: failing to submit an adequate plan of correction without timely notice that you are appealing; fraud or other illegal action; violating building, health, fire, safety, sanitation, or zoning law (or falling behind on workers’ compensation or employment security taxes) and not fixing it after notice; practices that jeopardize consumers’ health, safety, welfare, or clinical treatment; or failing to produce records or allow access to service locations within a reasonable time. Suspension or revocation for a rule violation is limited to violations that endanger someone’s health, safety, or welfare (13.3.1).

The most serious tool is a closure order. Where a center’s operation “clearly constitutes an immediate danger of serious harm to consumers,” the Director can close all of it or only the segment causing the danger (13.2). A provider that appeals the closure order may keep operating while the administrative and judicial appeals run.

The penalty caps in 13.3 depend on what went wrong:

Each day a violation continues after a penalty is assessed may count as a separate violation. In setting a penalty the Director weighs the gravity of the harm or potential harm, what the owner and staff did to correct it, any earlier violations at the center, and the financial benefit the center got from the violation (13.4.2). The Inspector General can also go to court for an injunction against unlicensed operation or against any center, licensed or not, whose operation jeopardizes its consumers (13.4).

Hearings and Appeals

Before a license is limited, denied, suspended, or revoked, or a penalty assessed, the owner gets written notice by certified mail or electronic transmission stating the grounds and the dates involved (13.6). The owner then has 10 days from receipt to request an administrative hearing or an informal meeting, and may bring a lawyer at its own expense. Hearings run under the contested case provisions of W. Va. Code 29A-5-1 et seq. and the hearing rule 69CSR1. Two points catch people out. Missing the 10-day window leaves the owner “subject to the full penalty imposed” (13.6.5). And asking for a hearing does not, by itself, pause the enforcement action or the penalty (13.6.6).

A party unhappy with the final decision after the hearing has 30 days from notice of that decision to appeal to the West Virginia Intermediate Court of Appeals, and from there to the Supreme Court of Appeals (13.8.1 and 13.8). Filing that appeal also does not stay the Director’s order, though you can ask the Intermediate Court for a stay. This matches the general rule in W. Va. Code 29A-5-4(b), which sends judicial review of contested-case decisions issued after June 30, 2022 to the Intermediate Court of Appeals rather than circuit court.

Opioid Treatment Programs and Office-Based MAT

Medication-assisted treatment programs answer to a separate statute, W. Va. Code 16B-13, and it is harder on operators than the behavioral health center rule. Under 16B-13-8 the director, in consultation with the Inspector General, can ban admissions or reduce capacity, and “shall deny, suspend, or revoke” an opioid treatment program license or an office-based MAT registration when the article or its rules are violated. The program gets written notice first and has 10 working days after receiving the order to request a hearing under 29A-5. A suspension can last up to one year. Once a denial, suspension, or revocation takes effect, the medical director, owners, and the property owner or lessor must stop operating the site as a MAT program. Anyone named in the licensing or registration documents of a suspended or revoked program can be barred from applying to operate another MAT program “for up to five years after the date of suspension or revocation,” unless the director grants a variance.

On judicial review, the text of 16B-13-8 points two ways: subsection (f) still describes a petition to the Circuit Court of Kanawha County within 30 days, while subsection (g) refers to the Intermediate Court of Appeals. Given 29A-5-4(b), our reading is that the Intermediate Court of Appeals is the current route, but confirm with counsel before a deadline passes. Civil penalties under 16B-13-9 run up to $10,000 when a medical director knowingly misrepresents corrective action, up to $5,000 per day for concurrently running an unlicensed or unregistered program, up to $5,000 for operating under new ownership without a new license or registration, and up to $20,000 for a physician running an unlicensed program or obtaining a license through fraud.

Recovery Residences

Recovery residences are registered with OHFLAC rather than licensed, but the penalty is steep. W. Va. Code 16-59-4 allows “a civil monetary penalty of up to $20,000 a day” against an owner who operates, owns, or manages an unregistered recovery residence. The first notice of non-compliance comes by certified mail. If the residence still isn’t registered 30 days after the owner receives it, the director tells the certifying agency to revoke its certificate of compliance, or, if it has no certificate, issues a closure notice. The owner can ask for an administrative hearing or informal meeting before the Board of Review within 10 days of receiving a notice, and a Board of Review decision after a formal hearing can be taken to the Intermediate Court of Appeals within 30 days.

Reapplying After a License Lapse or Denial

We found no waiting period in 27-9-1 or 71CSR25 before a denied or revoked behavioral health center can apply again, and no reinstatement track either. The rule simply requires a full application, with the fee, for a new location, a relocation, a renewal, or a change of ownership, filed at least 60 days ahead (4.2), and the Director must decide a complete application within 60 days, once the Fire Marshal has made a positive recommendation, and give an unsuccessful applicant written reasons (4.1.5). The rule does not say what happens to a license that just expires. Our reading, not a statement from the rule: a lapsed, revoked, or ownership-changed license puts you back at a new application. OHFLAC’s own opening checklist starts with a Certificate of Need or exemption “for any new proposed health care service,” so ask the Health Care Authority whether your earlier exemption still covers a restart before you file.

MAT programs are the exception on timing. 16B-13-8(e) says a new application will be considered once the conditions behind a denial or revocation “have been corrected and evidence of this fact has been furnished,” but the up-to-five-year bar on people named in a suspended or revoked program’s documents can keep the same owners out for much longer. Call OHFLAC at (304) 558-0050 to confirm the path for your situation before counting on a faster route.

Frequently Asked Questions

Facing an OHFLAC citation or working through an ownership change? Reach out here.

Sources

• W. Va. Code 27-9-1: Behavioral health center licensure (checked October 7, 2026)
• WV Secretary of State, Code of State Rules: 71CSR25 Behavioral Health Centers Licensure (May 1, 2026 final file, sections 2, 4.1.4 to 4.1.6, 4.4.1 to 4.4.3, 4.6.8, 4.9.1, 13.6, 13.8.1 and the fraud penalty) and 64CSR11 version list (checked October 7, 2026)
• 71CSR25 section 4 (June 5, 2025 text, Justia mirror): State Administrative Procedures (checked October 7, 2026)
• 71CSR25 section 13 (June 5, 2025 text, Justia mirror): Administrative Due Process, Administrative Appeals, and Judicial Review (checked October 7, 2026)
• W. Va. Code 29A-5-4: Judicial review of contested cases (checked October 7, 2026)
• W. Va. Code 16B-13-8: MAT license and registration limitation, denial, suspension, revocation (checked October 7, 2026)
• W. Va. Code 16B-13-9: MAT violations, penalties, injunction (checked October 7, 2026)
• W. Va. Code 16-59-4: Recovery residence registration and penalties (checked October 7, 2026)
• OHFLAC: Opening a behavioral health center (checked October 7, 2026)
• Office of the Inspector General: OHFLAC contact page (checked October 7, 2026)