Maryland health officials announced Monday that they are extending a temporary ban on the enrollment of certain types of mental health and addiction providers in Medicaid while the state continues its crackdown on fraud.

There will be new exemptions to the year-old moratorium. Providers in 14 rural counties in the state will be able to start enrolling in Medicaid in July, according to a press release from the Maryland Department of Health.

The state first announced a six-month pause last June, which was later extended to a year, after rapid growth in new programs and the rise of widespread concerns about poor quality treatment. It was immediately unclear when the updated moratorium may now end.

The pause targets three types of treatment programs — psychiatric rehabilitation, partial hospitalization and intensive outpatient — in which regulators have identified problems by providers, including the improper confiscation of patients’ benefits, the use of illegal incentives to attract and retain patients, and the operation of substandard and unlicensed housing, state-issued alerts show.

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For years, state health officials failed to properly vet and audit treatment providers while pumping hundreds of millions of dollars into the system, allowing for a flood of new programs, some of which used unscrupulous tactics, an investigation last year by The Banner and The New York Times found. The report linked at least 13 deaths, including a toddler who starved, to one such program called PHA Healthcare.

Last year the state began making changes to improve regulation and oversight of treatment programs. Among the reforms were drafting new regulations, scrutinizing applicants more carefully and referring providers to investigators for possible Medicaid fraud, health officials said.

Earlier this year, as part of the state’s stepped-up enforcement, three people who ran psychiatric rehabilitation programs together in Baltimore pleaded guilty to defrauding Maryland’s Medicaid program of more than $3.6 million.

The latest move on Monday helps the health department “prioritize access to vital services in our rural and underserved communities,” Deputy Secretary for Behavioral Health Alyssa Lord, who oversees treatment programs in Maryland, said in a statement.

“Now, we are able to shift our focus to other jurisdictions in our effort to improve the patient experience while also mitigating Medicaid fraud, waste, and abuse across Maryland,” Lord said.