July 1 marks name change to Maryland Department of Health
8/10/2017
Baltimore, MD (July 3, 2017) – Our agency name officially changed to the Maryland Department of Health on July 1, dropping “and Mental Hygiene” in an update that reflects the holistic nature of the health services that our department oversees, including behavioral health.
Created in 1969 from the Departments of Health and Department of Mental Hygiene, as well as a State Board that operated those two entities, Maryland’s Department of Health and Mental Hygiene contained not only the programs and facilities inherited from its two departments, but it also gained the medical professional licensing boards.
Today, the Department of Health has four major divisions – Public Health Services, Behavioral Health, Developmental Disabilities, and Health Care Financing (the Medicaid program). In addition, the department has 20 boards that license and regulate health care professionals; and various commissions that issue grants, and research and make recommendations on issues that affect Maryland’s health care delivery system. We depend on a staff of more than 6,500 and a budget of more than $12 billion to provide needed services to Maryland communities.