Do you own or operate a nursing home, child day care center, or other care agency that is subject to licensure and enforcement by the Pennsylvania Department of Human Services (DHS)? Are you subject to the regulations contained in one of the chapters of Title 55 of the Pennsylvania Code? If so, you have likely been the subject of an inspection and potentially received notice regarding inspection and/or licensing violations. Or worse, perhaps you receive a notice that DHS is placing you on a provisional license. What should you do?

(1) DON’T PANIC! Although DHS has not issued a recent quarterly licensing report under Governor Shapiro, previous reports from DHS indicate YOU ARE NOT ALONE! In one quarter in 2022, the Office of Child Development and Early Learning (OCDEL) issued provisional licenses to 56 providers and conducted 502 complaint investigations; while the Office of Children Youth and Families (OCYF) issued provisional licenses to 11 providers and conducted 1,075 complaint inspections.

(2) GATHER YOUR INFORMATION. Many times, the licensing violation notice you receive might refer to a complaint or an incident that occurred months or even years ago. Before you can formulate any response or appeal, you must get together any and all documentation you have, particularly anything that was provided to DHS at the time of the inspection.

(3) DON’T WAIT TO CALL AN ATTORNEY TO HELP YOU! Generally you may only have ten (10) days or at most thirty (30) days to file a response or an appeal to a licensing action. If you do not appeal in a timely fashion, you waive the right to argue about any of the issues in the licensing enforcement document. It is important to contact an attorney to help you through the process as early as possible so that minor issues do not become license revocations.